Man dies after inhaling fumes from barbecue

David Swallow, 29, was at a motorbike race meet in Scotland with his dad and had put on the portable barbecue at the end of the day.

He turned in for the night in his Renault van where he and his dad had been using the residual heat from the equipment to keep warm - not realising the barbecue was still smouldering and releasing toxic fumes.

His father Bill, a teacher, found him suffering a seizure the next morning.

Mr Swallow, 59, of Huddersfield, said the pair had made the journey over the border on June 18 for the Bob McIntyre Memorial Classic motorbike meet at the East Fortune racing track in East Lothian the next day.

After a day of racing, Bill, David and his sponsor Kevin Hodgkinson, who had provided him with two bikes to race for the weekend, relaxed with the portable barbecue at around 5pm.

Mr Swallow said: "It was quite a cold night and when we came back we felt that, even though it had gone out, the barbecue was still quite warm so we decided to put it in David's Renault Traffic van.

"We all sat in the back of the van for a bit then Kevin went back to his tent and I went to my van. We didn't feel queasy at all sitting there and didn't think anything of the barbecue.

"The next morning Kevin went to get something from the van and David was lying on his side and seemed to be asleep. About half an hour later I went in and he seemed to be stirring so I left him alone.

"It was only 30 minutes later that I thought we should get up and get to the track for testing. I went to give him a shake and his teeth were clenched and he was struggling to breathe, like he was having an epileptic fit. He was unconscious and not responding."