Chef de partie

19-year-old arrested after hitting and killing two women with car on rural Bolton road

Emily Sergeant

Police are appealing after two women sadly lost their lives in a double fatal road traffic collision in Bolton yesterday morning.

At around 7:42am yesterday morning (Monday 22 December 2025), Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were called to reports of a collision at the junctions of Scout Road, Smithills Dean Road, Colliers Row Road, and Coal Pit Road, all in a semi-rural area of Bolton.

The driver of a VW Polo was travelling down Scout Road and collided with two pedestrians who were walking down Smithills Dean Road.

Both pedestrians, two women aged 57 and 59, suffered fatal injuries and sadly died at the scene.

#APPEAL | Officers from our Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU) are appealing for information and witnesses following a fatal road traffic collision involving two pedestrians in Bolton.

Read more here: https://t.co/hgQ6LLxogu pic.twitter.com/my8Fpgwm19

— Bolton Police (GMP) (@GMPBolton) December 22, 2025

The driver of the car, a 19-year-old man, has been arrested on suspicion of causing two deaths by dangerous driving, and investigations are now ongoing into this incident.

Officers from GMP’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU) are now appealing to the public to help with their investigations, and are asking for anyone with any information, or who may have been in the area at the time the incident occurred, to please come forward.

This also includes anyone who witnessed the incident or have dashcam footage of it.

Read more:

• Police appeal after elderly woman, 89, is ‘seriously injured’ during hit and run in Bolton
• Heartbreaking tributes paid after 23-year-old hit by car in Stockport dies from injuries
• Police urgently appeal after man dies in collision with stationary cars in Oldham

Can you help? You can contact the SCIU directly on 0161 856 4741, or on the Live Chat service at gmp.police.uk, quoting log 507 of 22/12/2025.

Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Featured Image – Google Maps

Bruno Fernandes out for ‘at least a month’ following Aston Villa injury

Danny Jones

Less than ideal news for Manchester United fans as first-team star Bruno Fernandes is reportedly out for “at least a month.”

Reds can consider that akin to a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings.

Man United lost 2-1 to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday night despite a good performance, and certainly missed their creative spark in the middle of the park when Bruno Fernandes was forced off at the break.

Supporters in the away end and watching at home were no doubt looking through their fingers as they saw him pull up out of the blue and let the ball go out of play, especially given the fact that he never missed a game through injury.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Premier League (@premierleague)

To put things into context, Fernandes has played more matches than any top-level football player in Europe in the last three years (approximately 6,343 minutes – yes, really), so not only is it usually taken as read that he’ll start, but seeing their midfield talisman pull up mid-game was obviously a worry.

Fans immediately feared the worst as he had to stop moving and signal to the bench on multiple ocassions towards the end of the first half, and although it couldn’t certainly be worse, The Telegraph is now reporting that Fernandes has injured his “soft tissue” and faces at least a month on the sidelines.

The exact nature of the damage and the precise window he is expected to spend on the sidelines is yet to be fully confirmed by the club, but it seems likely that he’s latest to find his way onto the physio bench with a muscle problem.

Safe to say that it comes at a rather unfortunate time in the season, not only with three important players missing on AFCON duty, but with his supposed ‘like-for-like’ positional replacement, Kobbie Mainoo, seemingly having picked up an issue as well.

It still remains to be seen, however, just how serious the young Stockport-born star is injured for.

As the Portuguese captain, you can see the moment he suddenly pulled up and had to stop play – before ultimately seeing out the 45 – here:

Bruno should not have been on the pitch.

He’d done his hamstring.

Watch the video… Why is he still on the pitch if he can’t close down the player? pic.twitter.com/H8swgaQGSP

— Jimmy Hosang (@JimmyHosang) December 21, 2025

His compatriot Ruben Amorim was in no doubt that he would “lose some games”, but did play down that “nobody is going to die.”

The manager is still struggling to pick up points and still has the worst win percentage stat looming for the time being.

It doesn’t help that his now diminished squad have a tough game against Newcastle United coming up on Boxing Day; it’ll be interesting to see how the Red Devils head into 2026.

You can watch the highlights from Aston Villa vs Man United down below.

Read more:

• Rugby Football League give the go-ahead for a new Salford team in the Championship
• Kobbie Mainoo’s brother sends message to Amorim after t-shirt stunt at Old Trafford
• Nathan Aspinall urges PDPA to improve mental health support within the sport

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Manchester United/MUTV (screenshot via YouTube)