WILLIAM Herbert went out with a "weapon" and killed two men. He had neither a knife nor a gun in his hand, but a wheel.

The crime scene was one of the worst road crashes in the county in recent years, and the police traffic team that proved the double fatal accident was down to Herbert's dangerous driving takes top honours in the Hereford police division for their work.

PCs Chris Fry, Bob Conway and Alan Paton, a specialist collision investigator, have each received divisional commendations for their parts in making the case that convicted Herbert, who is serving a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Herbert was pushing his HGV - fully loaded with 44-tons of stone - over its speed limit to overtake another truck on the A4103 at Leighton Court, near Fromes Hill. He caught up with the truck on a blind hill brow corner leaving an oncoming car with no time to avoid a head-on collision.

In the car were two dads - David Haines and Malcolm Ward, both of Droitwich - and their two sons. It was three days before Christmas 2005 and they were delivering presents. Both men would die from their injuries. The youngsters - Daniel Haines, aged eight, and four-year-old Ian Ward, were badly injured.

The investigation had to prove that uninjured Herbert's driving was dangerous when he started to overtake. With the crash scene secured, the officers could straightaway match his account of what he did to tyre marks and skid patterns in the road. That was enough to have him arrested, but he maintained he had done nothing wrong.

By comparing Herbert's tacograph readings to those from the other HGV the team came up with a mathematical margin that had him pushing his truck way over its 40mph safety limit.

A full forensic examination of this evidence showed how Herbert clearly had to be speeding to catch the HGV ahead of him, and in circumstances where it was, at best, reckless to do so.

Re-tracing and filming the route Herbert took to the crash scene from his base near Carmarthen gave the team some idea of the kinds of speeds he had reached during his journey - which topped up to 59mph and averaged around 48mph.

By the time he caught up with the other HGV at Leighton Court, the occupants of the oncoming car had a split second before impact to see a bank of headlights looming out of early morning gloom - there was nowhere to go.

The evidence was put to Herbert in stages, with each interview revealing a little more of what the team had found until he was challenged on the full scenario. He still maintained he had done nothing wrong.

A jury at Worcester Crown Court backed the police work to convict him on two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Judge David Matthews said Herbert had made a "catastrophic" error of judgement. His initial three-year sentence was increased to five-and-a-half after a prosecution appeal earlier this year.

At high speed with such a heavy load Herbert was behind the wheel of a weapon, said PC Fry.

The families of the victims were full of praise for the police and in a statement said: "We would like to thank the officers for their very hard work in the investigation, and especially for their sympathetic approach on the day of the collision when our emotions were running highest of all. They were able to do their job as they needed but gave us plenty of support, as well as allowing us the space to be able to grieve for our loved ones."