Oliver Knott and Dr Maisie Ryan inquest: Junior doctor died after student 'inadvertently' swerved into path of livestock lorry on A65 in Yorkshire

Oliver Louis Knott, 21, was driving his Ford Fiesta from his family home in Ilkley to a dental appointment in Shipley on the morning of February 18, 2021, when other drivers saw him overtaking traffic on the A65 Addingham bypass.

However, despite there being nothing untoward about his driving until that point, the University of Liverpool geography student was seen by a witness to suddenly swerve into the path of a Scania cattle truck travelling in the other direction.

Mr Knott was killed instantly, but the head-on impact disabled the lorry’s steering and it careered out of control, striking a glancing blow to another HGV in the opposite carriageway before hitting the Fiat 500 driven by Dr Maisie Jade Ryan, 27, who was commuting from her home in Headingley to a shift at Airedale Hospital. Dr Ryan also died at the scene, while the livestock transporter’s driver, Anna Robinson, was left dangling upside down in the cab suspended by her seatbelt and suffered serious injuries.

The inquest at Bradford Coroner’s Court on Monday heard that Mr Knott, a talented footballer, had been ‘worried and preoccupied’ about the root canal treatment he was booked in for, and senior coroner Martin Fleming speculated that he may have been ‘distracted’ by the upcoming procedure, causing him to lose concentration.

However, police investigators could find no obvious cause of the collision and there were no defects to the vehicles involved or the road.

Both Dr Ryan’s parents, Paul and Lorraine, attended the hearing along with Mr Knott’s father Craig. Mr Ryan described his daughter, who grew up in Derby and attended Newcastle University before starting her medical career with hospital posts in Yorkshire, as ‘caring, dedicated, selfless, driven, loving and sociable’. She had been in the process of buying her first house when she died. Colleagues at Airedale have named a staff quiet room after her.

Craig Knott said Oliver attended Immanuel College in Bradford and played for Thackley Juniors as a youth, turning down the chance to join a football academy because he preferred to play with his friends. He added: “He brought energy to the family dynamic. He was sociable and polite and the impact of losing him has been impossible to put into words.”

He was still in the process of completing his university degree and was still spending time in Liverpool, where he had a part-time job in a Ted Baker store.

The West Yorkshire Police investigation was based around evidence from driver Lauren Richardson, who was between Mr Knott and Dr Ryan’s cars travelling towards Skipton and who was the only person who witnessed the collision in its entirety. The bypass has two lanes in this direction and one coming towards Ilkley, and Miss Richardson saw Mr Knott’s Fiesta pull out into the overtaking lane to pass a Volvo flatbed lorry driven by Roy Clifford. She said: “The Fiesta suddenly and abruptly veered into the opposite lane at about a 60-degree angle. It hit the large cattle transporter coming towards it.”

She added that after she stopped her car, there was a ‘scene of devastation’ as the livestock lorry, which was taking 16 cattle from a farm in Lancashire to a slaughterhouse in Pontefract, had overturned.

Mr Clifford, who said the Scania’s cab avoided colliding with his own by only 18 inches but struck the rear of his truck, initially told police he braked because he had seen ‘two black cars spinning’ on the road ahead of him, and though Mr Knott’s Fiesta was black, investigators found no evidence of another black vehicle involved or any cars that were not accounted for.

All drivers involved were tested for drugs and alcohol and all readings came back negative. There was also no evidence of mobile phone usage when handsets were analysed.

Postmortems showed that Mr Knott was unlikely to have suffered a medical episode, but evidence from his GP was read to the inquest. Mr Knott had not been sleeping in the days before the crash, and from 2019 had sought treatment and counselling for low mood, and been prescribed antidepressants. He had also admitted to regular cocaine use, and bags with traces of cocaine and ketamine were found in his wallet in the car.

However, by the time of the accident, his mental state was said to have ‘turned a corner’ and his father said he thought the issues were connected to disciplinary proceedings against him by the university, which took 16 months to conclude. Mr Knott was allowed to remain on his course, and was said to be ‘feeling and coping OK’.

Craig Knott added: “We had no concerns about him. He was just a typical lad of his age. He was concerned about his dental work because he was queasy about needles and blood.”

However, DC Martin Burns of West Yorkshire Police said that police found paracetamol and ibuprofen in a glass underneath Mr Knott’s bed, and analysis of his laptop revealed online searches for suicide methods involving painkillers. There were no searches related to vehicle-related methods.

Forensic collision investigator Robert Crispin added: “Maisie had tried to take evasive action, but there was nowhere for her to go. There is no evidence Oliver’s driving was untoward before the impact, but also no physical evidence to suggest why he encroached into the Scania's lane. The reason is unknown. It’s impossible to say if he was distracted by something like a stone through the windscreen, because the car was destroyed.”

Returning a conclusion of death in a road traffic collision for both Dr Ryan and Mr Knott, a visibly emotional Mr Fleming said: “Oliver made an attempt to overtake a lorry and collided with the Scania. I emphasise that cocaine did not show up in his toxicology results, and he had not taken painkillers. Maisie was overtaken by events outside of her control. The causation rests with Oliver, but the reasons for that are unclear. He did struggle with depression, but this was limited to a period of time.

"We heard some evidence that he had searched for articles about taking his own life, but he left no notes and there were no red flags picked up by his family. He was actively making plans for the future. There is no evidence he deliberately conducted this manoeuvre. He may have been distracted or his mind elsewhere. Why, we will never know, but this inadvertence has cost two young lives. It is a combined tragedy of gigantic proportions. Two young, promising individuals with so much ahead of them have been lost and I am so very sorry.”