RAF teen died after Mother’s Day trip home
A TEENAGE RAF serviceman was killed hours after visiting his mum for Mother’s Day when his friend’s car aquaplaned across an M42 flooding hotspot near Birmingham, an inquest heard.
Harvey Blount, 18, was in the back seat of his friend’s Audi A3 when it lost control in heavy rain between Junctions three and two, near Hopwood.
The teen was travelling with military friends Ben Waugh and Alex Sanderson when their car veered out of control on the southbound carriageway.
The Audi flew through the air, smashed into a motorway sign and careered down an embankment just after 8pm on March 14 last year.
The group were returning to the St Athan military base in South Wales, Worcestershire Coroner’s Court heard.
Driver Mr Waugh, from Middlesborough, had passed his driving test a few months earlier so had picked up Alex from York and then Harvey in Derby before tragedy struck.
Witnesses Joseph Thatcher, from Redditch, and his friend
Lucy Fullerton were on the opposite carriageway when he spotted the Audi fly into the air and hit a motorway sign.
They alerted the emergency services and drove to the crash scene to help.
Rainwater had gone across the carriageway instead of down special M42 drains, partly due to them being blocked by silt and stones, the inquest heard. The camber of the road in that section, near Alvechurch, played a part.
Mr Waugh said: “I was doing about 60 to 70mph and slowed down to about 50mph when the rain came. The back end of the car lost control and I was trying to regain control.
“The next thing I know, I’m facing the wrong way on the motorway. I opened my eyes and got a pain in my chest and back and was short of breath.”
Forensic collision investigator Pc Nicholas Stafford said rainwater had gone across all three lanes. He said “it was an unusual case” as there were “several reasons” for the crash.
He listed rain, the change in camber allowing water to travel across the carriageway, a blockage of the drains from aggregate and silt and a substantial amount of spray, as well as driver inexperience, travelling at a speed unsuitable for the conditions and aquaplaning.
Senior Worcestershire Coroner David Reid ruled Harvey died as a result of an accident and praised Good Samaritans Joseph and Lucy.