Father, 27, died in car crash after celebrating his birthday
APOPULAR Redditch dad was killed on his 27th birthday after crashing his car while returning from celebrations with friends.
Tesroi Beckford, known as Tez, lost control of his red Vauxhall Astra on the A441 Alvechurch Highway in Redditch.
It clipped a kerb, crossed the carriageway and careered into a lamppost before overturning at 10.21pm on March 4.
He was returning from celebrating his birthday with friends, where he had earlier taken cocaine, smoked cannabis and drunk some brandy and coca cola before driving home, Worcestershire Coroner’s Court heard.
Shortly before the crash, Mr Beckford, originally from Wolverhampton, overtook another car on the southbound carriageway, which has a speed limit of 70mph.
The driver of that car estimated that it was travelling at between 90mph and 100mph, while the passenger thought it was over 100mph as “their car shook as the Astra went past”.
Soon after, they came across the overturned car. Mr Beckford was declared dead at the scene.
The dad-of-one, who was also step-father to a second child, has been described as “always smiling” by his heartbroken family including sisters Erica Beckford and Charlie Rogers, also from Redditch.
There were some mechnical effects.. but not enough to stop (the car) being driven safely Nicholas Lane
A friend who was with him that night told West Mercia Police: “Tesroi had been drinking from a bottle of brandy and adding Coca-Cola. He drank from the bottle but shared it with friends.”
Friends described him as being “really high, off his kite and really happy” for his birthday and said he later decided to drive home and accelerated away, leaving them to continue celebrating.
Due to difficulties in gaining a blood sample, a test for alcohol levels could not be done but toxicology tests found levels of cannabis and cocaine, although they were not particularly high.
Pathologist Dr Kin-Chung Wu said
it wasn’t possible to say whether alcohol or drugs had an effect on his driving. The cause of death was multiple fatal injuries caused by a road traffic collision.
Nicholas Lane, Assistant Coroner for Worcestershire, said: “The evidence is clear to me that this road traffic accident occurred when Mr Beckford was travelling at very high speeds and the primary cause of losing control of the car.
“It may be that the combined effects of substances had an effect on
him controlling the car that was going out of control.
“We don’t have the evidence to say that was the case, but it remains a possibility.
“There were some mechanical effects that would have affected Mr Beckford’s ability to control the car, but not enough to stop it being driven safely.
“It comes back to the fact that Mr Beckford was driving at high speed and getting into a situation where a crash became unavoidable.”