Motorist ‘may have been asleep’
A young woman and her boyfriend died when she fell asleep at the wheel and drifted into the path of a lorry, an inquest heard.
Oliver Appleby, who was brought up and went to school in Margate, was a passenger in a Mazda 2 driven by his girlfriend Sarah Relf after the couple visited Mr Appleby’s family in Thanet.
An inquest in Bury St Edmunds heard Miss Delf, from Norfolk, may have fallen asleep at the wheel during the journey from Margate to Norwich. The hearing was told she was out until 4am the previous night before beginning the journey home with Mr Appleby at 5.15pm.
The pair, both 24, died in the collision on the A140 in Suffolk on November 15. There were no skid marks or avoidance manoeuvres. The cause of the crash could not be confirmed.
Oliver went to Ursuline College in Westgate on Sea and after the tragedy his family paid tribute to an enthusiastic young man “with a heart of gold”.