Woman died after lorry skid in sudden snowfall

Susan Gough, 62, was a back seat passenger in a blue VW Bora that was hit by a lorry during "extremely dangerous" conditions on the B1248 near Towthorpe, East Yorkshire, on February 9.

She suffered severe whiplash injuries including a broken neck and was pronounced dead at Hull Royal Infirmary two hours later.

An inquest into her death heard the lorry driver Andrew Hawes, 41, had been travelling at 46mph moments before the crash when the speed limit for his vehicle was 40mph.

Mr Hawes, who had been travelling from Hull to Malton, told police he had "dabbed" the brakes after seeing the car's headlights and then lost control of the lorry, which was towing a refrigerated trailer.

The trailer hit the car at about 6mph and shunted it into a hedge.

Mr Hawes, of St Peter's Crescent, Norton, was arrested and charged with causing death by careless driving but the prosecution offered no evidence when the case was brought to court.

Mrs Gough, of Downe Street, Driffield, was one of six people in a car designed for five and had her grandson Dominic, seven, sitting on her knee.

A Jehova's Witness, she had been with her daughter Suzanne Thorneycroft, her son-in-law Austin Thorneycroft, and their three children Charlotte, 16, Dominic, and Toby, five, to a Kingdom Hall in Malton, North Yorkshire.

The family then visited a friend in Norton before heading home to Driffield.

Mrs Thorneycroft told the inquest how the weather suddenly deteriorated as they headed towards Towthorpe.

"It started to snow, it really came out of nowhere, they were really big snowflakes like cornflakes," she said.

Mrs Thorneycroft recalled seeing the lorry skid when it was about 100ft away and described the impact as "such a wallop".

A police inspection of the car found it to be "unroadworthy" because of a bald front tyre, but this had not contributed to the crash.

David Rosenberg, Assistant Deputy Coroner for Hull and the East Riding, found that Mrs Gough died as a result of an accident.

After the hearing, Mrs Thorneycroft described her mother as a "wonderful woman" who was sadly missed and said she did not blame Mr Hawes for her death.