Yorkshire Dales farmer drowned in stream after deliberately driving Land Rover off Buttertubs Pass

Norman Alan Busby, 51, known as Alan, farmed sheep at Harland House in Marrick, near Richmond.

His Land Rover Defender left the road on January 11 at Buttertubs Pass, shortly after his wife Andrea had announced that their marriage was over and left the family farm with the younger of their two sons, aged nine.

An inquest held at County Hall in Northallerton today (November 16) found that Mr Busby had deliberately driven the vehicle through a wooden roadside fence on the steep-sided pass, yet survived the collision and began walking downhill towards the village of Thwaite. His body was found face down in a stream by police and mountain rescue volunteers later that afternoon.

Although coroner John Broadbridge was satisfied that a police recreation of Mr Busby's final manoeuvre proved it had been intentional, he said it was impossible to say that he had ended up in the stream through continued intent to end his life.

The inquest heard that Mr Busby and his wife had been in a relationship since 2001, and married in 2007. They lived at Mr Busby's inherited sheep farm, which he worked with his father until the latter's death in 2014. Mrs Busby was not from a farming background herself and her involvement in the business was minimal, as she continued in her job as a veterinary receptionist.

Mrs Busby described her husband as 'focused, driven and organised', but said that after losing his father, the added weight of responsibility for running the farm appeared to make him withdraw from family life.

In a statement she told the inquest: "(His work on the farm) was sometimes to the detriment of our relationship. His father's death affected him a lot, and we began to spend less time together as a family. The marriage began to fall apart. He seemed distant and switched off from family life, and we were living separate lives. I felt he was unhappy too. We had conversations about this but nothing changed."

On January 9, Mrs Busby wrote her husband a letter explaining that the marriage was over and that she was leaving him. She assured him that he would still see their younger son regularly and that his relationship with the boy would not change. They left while Mr Busby was out in the fields with his sheep, but Mrs Busby was keen to remain in regular contact.

After finding out about his death around two hours after his body was discovered, Mrs Busby spoke to her husband's mother Hilda Busby and was told he had left an unaddressed note at the farm apologising for his actions.

"Alan had never been suicidal. When Hilda mentioned the note, that was the first time I had considered suicide. I honestly never believed he would do it. None of it makes sense. I am heartbroken for him. I made a decision that I thought was best for us."

Mr Busby's mother said he had been 'devastated' at his wife's decision and that his son had gone with her, but when she visited him on January 10 he was out working with the sheep and she had no serious concerns for his welfare.

A friend and neighbour, Nicholas Gibbons, who was working away at the time, had two lengthy phone conversations with Mr Busby, and Mr Gibbons arranged for another neighbour, Keith Stones, to check on him.

Mr Busby was last seen alive by a Merrick resident, Ruth Guy, who saw him alone in his yard between 8-8.30am on the morning of his death. By 10am, when she left her house in a vehicle, she noticed that his Land Rover had gone but that his cattle trailer had rolled into the fence, which she described as 'unusual' as Mr Busby was normally a meticulous and careful man.

Local farmer Trevor Reynoldson, who knew Mr Busby through livestock auctions, found the damaged Land Rover at the bottom of the valley beneath Buttertubs Pass at around 9am, while he was out feeding his sheep. Mr Reynoldson described the abandoned vehicle as 'quite eerie' and said that he was wary of the scene. He believed it had been dumped as he could see no signs of any person near the Land Rover and there was no blood or footprints. He could see broken fencing on the road above, and reported the sighting to police when he returned home.

The inquest heard from Sergeant Martin Usher, who arrived at the pass at around 11am as weather conditions were deteriorating. Sergeant Usher spotted the vehicle at the bottom of a 200-metre incline and headed down the slope. He could see nobody in or near the vehicle, but followed a debris trail and found Mr Busby's mobile phone.

Sergeant Usher saw blood in the driver's footwell and then saw a trail of blood leading downhill away from the Land Rover.

"It appeared that the driver had got out of the vehicle. In these cases, people tend to head downhill and follow water courses. I followed the blood along a drystone wall, it was easy enough to see. At a gateway I found recent footprints in the mud, pointing downhill towards Thwaite. I turned to the beck and followed it. I then saw a person floating face down. I and mountain rescue volunteers pulled him from the beck. It was obvious he was dead, and he had lacerations to his neck. The beck was shallow enough to walk across and was about 170 metres from the Land Rover."

Forensic collision investigator Traffic Constable Paddy Green from North Yorkshire Police gave evidence and said that it was ascertained the Land Rover had left the road at a 90 degree angle, which would be unlikely to happen if the driver had unintentionally lost control.

"The road runs along a steep-sided valley. I could see from the damage to the fencing that he had gone through it at a 90 degree angle to the road, which couldn't have been caused by drifting or swerving. It suggested a lower speed manoeuvre and the stretch of road was straight."

The Land Rover was not defective and there was evidence Mr Busby had not been wearing a seatbelt.

TC Green added that the driver's side of the Land Rover was 'remarkably intact' despite serious damage to the rest of the 4x4, which had become airborne and rolled during its 210-metre descent. There were no signs that Mr Busby had attempted to brake.

TC Green agreed that after a police reconstruction of the crash, on the balance of probabilities it was believed that the impact with the fence had been deliberate.

A postmortem conducted gave the cause of Mr Busby's death as drowning with a road traffic collision as a contributory factor. There were no signs of serious crash injuries, although the pathologoist stated that he could not rule out the possibility that Mr Busby had suffered a brain injury that left him 'confused and disorientated' and led to him entering the stream.

Mr Busby's GP added that his patient was 'normally fit and well', was teetotal and had no history of mental illness.

Recording a narrative conclusion, Mr Broadbridge said it could not be said for certain whether Mr Busby had ended up in the stream intentionally or accidentally, and a suicide verdict could thus not be made.

"Alan Busby was a very busy man, and in 2014 he lost his key right hand - his father. Andrea indicates that he spent a lot of time on the farm, and she sensed their marriage had fallen apart and that they were living separate lives.

"I find the action with his vehicle was intentional, and that it is clear that he survived the fall and got out of the vehicle.

"He was upset by a major life change that had disturbed him, and left a note apologising, though there was no addressee. It seems his intention was to turn off the road and it may be that he expected to suffer fatal injury. He was alive when he entered the stream. He could have stayed near the vehicle, so there is a question of whether this was an ongoing attempt to end his life, or accidental.

"It is difficult to determine one way or another. It could suggest he was walking downhill to seek assistance, or he could have been looking for some other way to harm himself. I cannot assume that, having been thwarted by surviving the collision, that he then immersed himself in the water. There is not enough evidence to point to a suicide verdict."