Samaritan who stopped to help stranded driver was killed by top cellist on icy road
A MOTHER who stopped to help a stranded driver was knocked down and killed by a classical musician on his way home from a concert, an inquest heard.
World-leading cellist Adrian Brendel, who has performed at the BBC Proms, hit Natalie Mountford, 45, after his car skidded on ice.
She had pulled over to help a young woman whose vehicle had crashed into a hedge near Sturminster Newton, Dorset.
Mr Brendel, 48, told an inquest that he had braked as soon as he saw the two cars but was unable to stop his Citroen Berlingo in the freezing conditions. Police found no evidence of wrongdoing on the musician’s part and said he was ‘traumatised’ by the crash.
But relatives of Ms Mountford, who was sent ‘flying’ 30ft through the air after being hit and died at the scene, accused him of driving without due care and attention.
They said the mother of three, from Sturminster Newton, had spent her final moments caring for others and that ‘her greatest trait would also be her downfall’.
The family added: ‘We don’t understand how every car travelling that night stopped in the accident vicinity but Mr Brendel’s [stopped] a further 60 metres on. Only speed can make this happen.’ However, the coroner was told that an officer who arrived at the scene early on December 18, 2022, had also skidded on the ice.
The inquest heard Mr Brendel, the son of renowned pianist Alfred Brendel, had been driving to his £2.5million home in the village of East Orchard from a performance at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival when he came across a crashed Vauxhall Corsa, driven by Charley Mack, blocking the right hand lane.
He told the inquest in Bournemouth how he then saw Ms Mountford’s Vauxhall Astra further down the road, parked on a slope. As he started to brake, his car ‘lost traction and started planing down the ice’.
Mr Brendel, a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, added: ‘My foot was on the brake the entire time.’
Ms Mountford was hit near the verge as she walked around her car after taking Ms Mack to sit in the back so she could warm up.
‘It was instantaneous. The first time I saw her was right at the collision’, Mr Bendel said.
Ms Mack, also from Sturminster Newton, said she was driving at about 40mph on the 60mph-limit road due to the ice.
She remembered ‘ hitting the hedge and then coming back out from the impact’. Ms Mack told how Ms Mountford had managed to stop perfectly, giving her a hug before taking her to her Vauxhall Astra.
She recalled hearing Mr Brendel’s car approaching as Ms Mountford walked around her car. ‘The next thing I really saw was headlights to the left of me flying down the road,’ she said.
‘[The car] hit her and she literally went flying. I saw her land near my car and slump over on her chest.’
Sergeant Geraint Butler, of Dorset Police, told the inquest there was ‘no evidence to say the manner of driving of Mr Brendel [was] either dangerous or careless’.
Coroner Brendan Allen ruled Ms Mountford died as a result of a road traffic collision.
‘Foot on the brake the whole time’