Call for change to speed limit after student’s death
A coroner will recommend the speed limit is changed on Pilgrims Way after a driver who had only just passed his test was killed along the narrow lane.
Luke Mumford, 20, was on his way to work when he lost control of his Ford Fiesta on the Aylesford route in November, careering up a bank, hitting a tree and flipping over.
An inquest at Archbishop’s Palace, Maidstone on Wednesday heard that the former Maplesden Noakes pupil had passed his test just three weeks before the crash and while it was unlikely he was driving as fast as the 70mph limit he was travelling at significant speed. The road – described by investigating officer DS Scott Lynch as peculiar – is considered a dual carriageway despite splitting in to two mile-long narrow lanes separated by woodland.
Advanced driver DS Lynch told assistant coroner Kate Thomas he would not be comfortable driving along it at anything over 60mph, while forensic crash scene investigator Angela Holmes said the 70 limit was unachievable.
Miss Thomas said: “I’m of the view, having considered photographs and evidence, that 70mph is inappropriate for this road. While the speed limit is the maximum it’s not always considered by drivers to be. I think the current limit is an encouragement for people to go that fast. There are no curbs or lights and I will be making a regulation 28 report to KCC Highways recommending the limit is decreased.”
Mr Mumford, of Maidstone, a graphic design student at MidKent College and then Christ Church, Canterbury had spent the afternoon at his girlfriend’s house in Eccles watching films, leaving at 5.20pm with his shift at Sainsbury’s starting at 6pm.
His car was found on its side in a field 20 minutes later and despite the efforts of two passers-by who kicked out the windscreen and pulled him out he had suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead. The hear- ing was told there was no alcohol or drugs in his system, the road was in a good condition and there was nothing wrong with the car.
Miss Thomas said: “We simply don’t know what it was that led him to leave the road.” A verdict of death by road traffic accident was recorded.