Trucker’s coughing fit caused fatal crash

Robert Reed, 75, his wife Margaret, 74, their one-year-old great-granddaughter Destiny and her mother Natalie, 18, died in the collision between the Renault Scenic he was driving and a Volvo lorry near Seaham, County Durham, in April last year.

Driver Owen Davis was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving but following a lengthy investigation was told he will not face prosecution after medical tests showed he had a whooping cough infection at the time, backing up his story.

Immediately after the crash he told a witness he had blacked out during a coughing fit while driving a load of Tarmac.

He was unaware he had gone over the car, and told NHS admin worker Anne-Marie Edwards who had stopped to help: “I’m just pleased I haven’t hit anybody.”

Mr Davis told the inquest in Crook: “I was coughing at nowt. I tried to get a breath in. I started to panic. There’s no lay-by, I’m going to have to park in the road and the next thing I remember is peace and quiet.”

The lorry went over Mr Reed’s people carrier, through a hedge, up a bank, and ended up 100m away on a golf course, the inquest heard.

Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle returned verdicts in all four cases of accidental death.

Mr Davis could remember in detail the moments leading up to the crash, which happened when he was on his way to lunch.

“I remember thinking about what was in the fridge for dinner and getting my sandwich.”

It was then he began to cough for what he estimated to be about six seconds before he passed out.

“I got out of the lorry, I was dazed, I didn’t know what had happened. I had a pain in my stomach where I had hit the steering wheel. I wanted to lie down.”

The experience frightened him, he said, and he wanted to ring his wife and tell her he had been in an accident but his phone was taken away. Then someone told him his 15-tonne lorry had hit a car.

“I said, ‘Oh Jesus Christ, is he fine?’ He said ‘Yeah, yeah, he’s fine, he’s getting sorted out now’.”

It was only later at the Sunderland Royal Infirmary where he was being treated that police told him that the four people had died.

Mr Davis, who is married with two sons, became upset when he recalled that devastating moment. Asked by the coroner if there was anything he would like to add, Mr Davis looked at the grieving family members and replied: “Just that my heart goes out to them.”

Dr Nigel Stout, who runs a black out clinic at the Sunderland hospital, checked Mr Davis’s blood for whooping cough after hearing that his teenage son had also passed out during a coughing fit.

The test revealed a whooping cough infection had been present. In some cases coughing can cause a loss of blood pressure which can lead a patient to black out.

Ian Haigh, who led the police inquiry and has since retired, said Mr Davis’s story was examined in detail. The trucker’s mobile phone was checked and he had not been using it and a breath test proved negative. The lorry had no mechanical faults.

After the hearing Steven Reed, whose mother, father and grand-daughter were killed, said of the trucker: “He has not even got the b**** to say sorry.

“I will never get over it.”