TWO Burnley men were seriously injured after the M6 smash yesterday morning which killed one and injured five.

David Lee Wood, 30, of Olympia Street and Wayne Earnest Cole, of Oxford Road were travelling southbound near junction 28 when their Ford Transit was sent careering onto the northbound carriageway.

Police said an articulated lorry had hit the transit van sending both vehicles through the central reservation and into the path of traffic on the the opposite carriageway.

The transit van stopped when it hit a concrete barrier. The articulated lorry straddled across all lanes of the northbound carriageway.

The driver of the lorry, a 38-year-old man from Bootle, Merseyside, died. The two men from Burnley are in the Royal Preston Hospital.

Two other people were slightly injured as their cars hit the hurtling vehicles.