Couple suffered multiple injures when afternoon ride on motorbike ended in tragedy

Simon Bristow

A POLICE community support officer was probably speeding when he and his girlfriend died in a horrific crash with a farm vehicle during an afternoon ride on his motorcycle.

Andrew Pafnoutiou and Pamela Leetham, both 33, died when their black Suzuki GSXR 600 hit a trailer being towed by a tractor on the A614 near Middleton-on-the-Wolds on April 8.

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Police believe Mr Pafnoutiou was trying to overtake a car and the tractor in one manoeuvre, but had not realised the tractor was turning right into a field, leaving the trailer temporarily obstructing the carriageway, an inquest into the couple’s deaths heard yesterday.

Emma Dring, a passenger in a silver Vauxhall Zafira which had slowed down behind the tractor as it started to turn, described hearing a “voosh” as the motorbike passed.

She told Hull Coroner’s Court: “Me and my friend just sat there going ‘****’, we could see what was going to happen.”

The tractor driver, Benjamin Lambert, said he heard a “thud” and stopped briefly, but decided to pull the trailer into the field thinking the noise was a tyre blowing out.

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He said: “There was like a slight noise and the trailer reared up and dropped down. I thought the tyre had blown out. It was like a thud. I got the trailer off the road and got out to have a look.”

Kirsty Kirkup, who was driving the car, which also had two of her children in the back, saw the bike’s brake light come on before it started to skid under the trailer.

She said: “I just remember shouting to my friend ‘What the hell was he doing’?”

Mrs Kirkup pulled up and went to speak to Mr Lambert. She said: “He just said ‘Where did they come from?’

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“I just said they came from nowhere but they’ve gone under the trailer. He was really shaken up.”

Mr Pafnoutiou and Ms Leetham, of Olive Grove, Goole, both suffered multiple injuries in the impact and died instantly.

Alfred Place, a collision investigator with Humberside Police, said the evidence suggested the motorbike was exceeding the 60mph speed limit on the road.

A police reconstruction of the incident found that the tractor’s turning manoeuvre would probably be completed on average in 6.2 seconds, and that allowing two seconds for the driver to react, a bike travelling within the speed limit would stop in 5.9 seconds, avoiding the collision.

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He said the extent of damage to the bike also suggested it had been speeding. Investigators had ruled out several possible causes of the crash, but could not rule out rider error, Mr Place said.

The couple had met 18 months earlier through an internet dating agency.

Ms Fleetham had never ridden a motorcycle before meeting Mr Pafnoutiou, but liked it so much she bought a Honda 125.

Mr Pafnoutiou, a PCSO with West Yorkshire Police, had hoped to become a fully qualified officer with the force.

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Ms Fleetham has a teenage son, Declan, from an earlier relationship and both families had become close after the three had been to Cyprus to visit Mr Pafnoutiou’s parents, who emigrated there from West Yorkshire three years ago.

Penny Harper, Ms Fleetham’s younger sister, said she and her husband Graham had been looking after Declan since the crash and were now his legal guardians.

Hull and East Riding Coroner Geoffrey Saul returned a verdict of accidental death in respect of both riders.

He added: “If there’s a comforting factor in this tragic case it seems quite apparent unconsciousness would have been immediate with death arriving soon afterwards, with no suffering or pain.”

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