Police said Monday, September 21, 2026 that they had charged a 50-year-old man with six counts of causing death by dangerous driving over a collision on the A61. The defendant, Christopher Cockell, 50, has an address given as Gresford Close, Woolley Grange, according to an ITV report published September 21, 2026.
Cockell has been summonsed and is due to appear at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on October 28, 2026. He faces one count of causing death by dangerous driving for each of the six people who died.
The collision happened on the A61 between Staincross and Newmillerdam on July 21, 2024. Those killed were a couple, two of their young daughters, and two people traveling on a motorcycle.
The couple were Shannen Morgan, 30, and Shane Roller, 33. Two of their daughters, Rubie, nine, and Lillie, four, also died. The couple’s surviving daughter, 11, was not in the vehicle.
The motorcycle victims were Christopher Barton, 56, and Janine Barton, 48, from Barnsley. Both were on the BMW motorcycle involved in the collision, and both died.
Shane Roller was at the wheel of a silver Ford Focus that, an inquest previously heard, hit head-on the BMW motorcycle that Christopher Barton was riding. That inquest also heard the collision happened shortly before 4 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon.
An earlier charge against Cockell, brought in March 2025, accused him of failing to stop at the scene of the crash.
Tributes and a Fundraiser
Callum Roller, Shane Roller’s brother, wrote on social media at the time that he was “lost for words,” and paid tribute to those killed. In the same post, he wrote: “You all had a heart of gold and gonna miss you all like crazy!”
Shane Roller’s father, Graham, paid tribute after the crash to his son and daughter-in-law, whom he described as an “amazing” mum and dad, ITV reported September 21.
Athersley North Primary School, where Rubie and Lillie were pupils, said in a tribute reported by ITV on September 21 that the incident was a “devastating, tragic loss.” The school said of the older girl: “She always worked really hard and was well-liked by her friends. She was a fantastic role model for her peers and aspired to be a teacher.” It added: “Both girls were an asset to the school and a delight to teach.”
A fundraiser set up for the couple’s surviving 11-year-old daughter has raised more than £400,000.
Two families are grieving after the crash. The Bartons of Barnsley lost their riders, while the other household lost a mother, a father and two young girls; a public fundraising appeal has since centered on the care and schooling of the daughter who survived. For relatives of the six killed, the court process is only beginning.
The case is one of a number of fatal-crash prosecutions moving through courts, each reaching a courtroom milestone months or years after the crash.
Michigan Work Zone Charges
Tyler Reck, 24, was charged in July by the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office with a pair of reckless driving counts resulting in death, along with two counts of committing a moving violation that caused a death inside a work zone.
A crash on U.S. 127 northbound in the area of Holt Road on May 26, 2026, produced the charges. Investigators said Reck’s vehicle went out of control at high speed and struck two Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) workers, killing Bruce Wagner, 51, and Steve Spenle, 49. Bond was set by a judge at $25,000 personal recognizance.
California Deputy Charged
Prosecutors announced in June 2026 that a Riverside County, California, sheriff’s deputy, Glynn Wilburn, 42, faces counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and a felony count of reckless driving that inflicted serious injury. The charges are connected to an on-duty crash on September 6, 2025.
A young couple’s car was struck at 71 mph after Wilburn ran a red light at speed, prosecutors said, killing Gavin Hinkley, 21, and leaving his fiancée, Madeline Fox, 20, with life-threatening injuries. A conviction could bring up to 14 years in prison. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said he was on administrative leave.
Long Island Guilty Plea
Manslaughter, assault and reckless driving charges drew a guilty plea on Friday, September 4, 2026, from Felix Jose Pantaleon Tavarez, 24, of Lindenhurst, over a September 22, 2024, crash on the Southern State Parkway near Exit 39S in North Babylon.
He hit speeds of up to 121 mph, cut off other drivers, weaved between lanes and filmed himself on his phone, Suffolk County prosecutors said. Both cars left the road and went into trees in the collision, which killed Reynaldo Collado, 49, of West Babylon at the scene.
A passenger in the victim’s Honda sustained a fractured vertebrae and pelvis, and three other occupants required hospitalization. Pantaleon is due back in court October 23 and “is expected to be sentenced to four to 12 years in prison.”
