Smouldering barbecue blamed for van death of motorbike enthusiast

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

He then went to sleep in his Renault van but failed to realise the barbecue was still smouldering.

His father, who had slept in his own vehicle, found his son suffering a seizure the next morning before he was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary

Mr Swallow said it was only on the journey over that he realised that the barbecue could have been responsible for the condition of his son – who had slipped into a coma.

Speaking from his home in Huddersfield, where his son once lived, Mr Swallow, 59, said: "We were told that David fell in to a deep sleep after we left and there was just enough of the barbecue still going that it was giving off carbon monoxide for the first hour or so while he was asleep."

David, who lived in Cheadle, Cheshire, died on June 24.