Mystery over cause of car crash that killed OAPs
PASSENGERS DIED AFTER HEAD-ON COLLISION WITH LORRY
THE cause of a car crash which killed two passengers will never be known.
Former Derbyshire councillor Roy Bickerton, 86, and Alan Frater, 82, lost their lives after the Skoda hit a lorry head-on, an inquest heard.
The driver of the Skoda, Arthur Hiddleston, who was injured in the crash, told the inquest that he remembered passing a small garage on his right and that he then “didn’t remember anything else till he woke up on impact”.
The lorry driver also provided his account of the accident to assistant coroner Matt Kewley. He described how he immediately braked when the Skoda approached head-on. He then sounded his horn but the driver did not react.
Mr Hiddleston was described by the lorry driver as “frozen, with no expression”.
Another witness statement told the inquest how they saw the Skoda driving towards the lorry and “didn’t see brake lights” from the vehicle.
The Skoda was travelling along the A6 Buxton Road near New Mills when the crash happened in 2019, Chesterfield Coroner’s Court heard.
An investigation into the cause of the crash by Derbyshire police suggested two potential explanations for the irregular driving – either the driver fell asleep or suffered a medical episode.
A cardiology report could not find any irrefutable proof that Mr Hiddleston had a medical episode which caused the vehicle to steer onto the wrong side of the single-carriageway road.
Mr Hiddleston also has no past experience of falling asleep at the wheel or any medical episodes whilst driving.
This led the coroner to conclude that there was insufficent evidence to provide a reason for the crash.
The inquest concluded that both men had died in a traffic collision.
Mr Bickerton, a former councillor for High Peak Borough Council and New Mills Town Council, was determined to have died upon impact and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Frater sustained injuries in the crash which caused substantial physiological stress leading to his medical cause of death being classed as ischemic heart disease due to chest injuries. He was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary, where he later died.
In a statement released by Mr Bickerton’s family at the time of the incident he was described as “a really good man”.
The coroner offered his condolences and apologised for it taking two years for the cases to come to a conclusion.