A young married couple, who survived a catastrophic high-speed collision in Bolton that killed four people, have spoken tearfully from their hospital beds of the "cruel" reality of their life-altering injuries and the agonising recovery they now face apart.
A Night That Changed Everything
The tragic incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning, 18 January 2026, on Wigan Road in Bolton. A red Seat Leon, carrying three teenagers, collided with a Citroen C4 Picasso taxi at around 12.45am.
Muhammad Danyaal, 19, Farhan Patel, 18, and Mohammed Jibrael Mukhtar, 18, all inside the Seat Leon, died at the scene. The taxi driver, 54-year-old Masrob Ali, also lost his life. Mr Ali, described by his daughter as a "safe driver," was carrying passengers at the time.
Those passengers were 28-year-old Georgina Daniels and her husband, 29-year-old Tom Daniels, a sales manager. The pair, married just seven months, were in the back of the taxi.
'We Will Have to Do It Apart'
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News from her hospital bed, an emotional Georgina Daniels struggled to comprehend their survival. "I can’t fathom how we’re all still alive – it should have taken our lives," she said. "I have no idea how we’re all still here after seeing what happened to everyone and the state we are all in."
Both have sustained devastating, life-changing injuries. Georgina revealed that while her legs are okay, her other injuries will require 24-hour care. Tom faces major mobility issues, particularly with stairs, and will also need constant care for the foreseeable future.
"Now it’s our first year of marriage and we are going to have to live apart with life-changing injuries, with no end date," Georgina said. "All of the recovery, rebuilding, the things we will have to get over. And we will have to do it apart. It’s cruel."
Questions Over Speed and Vehicle Modifications
Footage has emerged suggesting the Seat Leon involved was travelling at extremely high speeds. A video reportedly shows the car reaching 120mph on a residential road just 24 hours before the fatal crash.
Further investigation indicates the vehicle may have been significantly modified. Online footage from a tuning company shows a car with the same registration plate being modified to produce 410 Brake Horsepower (BHP), almost double the standard output for that model. A photograph seen by Metro also appears to show one of the teenagers who died, Mohammed, standing with the "souped-up" vehicle.
Reflecting on the tragedy, Georgina called for greater road safety awareness. "There needs to be road safety realisations, but that should have been done much earlier," she stated. "When people drive like that, it’s done for attention and status. It needs to be that, collectively, everyone doesn’t give it any attention."
She also paid tribute to the taxi driver, Mr Ali: "It was just a short journey and he was nothing but lovely to us... Lives have been lost, lives have been changed. We can never take this back."
The couple's future remains uncertain. A GoFundMe page set up to support them states they have sustained "severe and life-altering injuries, including serious internal injuries, injuries to the brain and unimaginable trauma." Georgina concluded: "We have no expectations, we are just living hour by hour."
