A CORONER has set out how an inquest into the death of two young men in a horror crash will be held, determining that any video footage shown will not go beyond a certain point. 

Mohammed Sohail Aziz, 23, and Suhail Akhtar, 20, were killed when the car they were in, a BMW, crashed into a road barrier on Bradford Road, Brighouse town centre, in the early hours of July 17 last year. Both men were from Dewsbury. 

Prior to the crash, their car had been pursued by a West Yorkshire Police car for a short time and both Mr Aziz and Mr Akhtar died at the scene, pronounced dead at 1.40am and 1.55am respectively.

A pre-inquest review, held remotely at Bradford Coroners’ Court yesterday, went through key aspects of how the inquest would be approached. 

Assistant Coroner Crispin Oliver set out that if moving footage was shown, it would only be parts relevant to the inquest. 

CCTV footage and body-worn footage will be collated, but will be restricted to the period of 1am through to the impact. 

It was also determined the inquest would not be held with a jury, nor would it be an Article 2 inquest, a type of inquest held in cases where the state or ‘its agents’ have ‘failed to protect the deceased against a human threat or other risk’ or where there has been a death in custody. 

Mr Oliver told the families of Mr Aziz and Mr Akhtar: “That does not mean I take any less seriously what we are doing here, or that I’m narrowing down the investigation.

“It simply means I will be making the decisions about the findings and the conclusion and I will be determining, in a full and thorough way, what the issues are that need to be determined.”

Among the list of witnesses were police officers and the investigating officer, a collision expert as well as a pathologist and toxicologist. 

Two iPhones which were found at the scene are still being investigated, the hearing was told.

The coroner set aside two days for the full inquest and said another pre-inquest review would be held before then, but an exact date was not fixed. 

Following the launch of an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) last year, its director Miranda Biddle said: “We have established, so far, that Mr Aziz was the driver of the vehicle. 

“The police vehicle signalled for him to stop, using their emergency lights, and he failed to do so.

“A short pursuit of approximately one minute then took place before the car crashed. 

“While both vehicles will be examined in due course, at this stage, we do not believe there was any contact between the cars.

“We have a number of witness statements, multiple CCTV recordings, and body worn video footage of the incident. This will be analysed alongside the police incident logs and statements from the officers involved to establish all of the circumstances surrounding this tragedy.”

One resident described it as “the worst crash” they had ever seen, while a neighbour told the Telegraph & Argus they’d heard an “almighty crash” and there was a huge presence from the emergency services. 

They said: “I was pretty shocked to see something like that. I’m taken aback by what I saw.”