Lorry driver who blamed coughing fit for fatal crash will not face prosecution

♦ A lorry driver who killed a father-oftwo when he had a coughing fit at the wheel has escaped prosecution.

Philip Beeton, 50, a carpenter, died when his van was hit by a 20-ton truck on the A10 near Chittering in Cambridgeshire. He was driving home in 2015 to celebrate his daughter’s birthday with Jack Beeton, 17, his nephew, who suffered life-changing injuries and spent 94 days in hospital.

Mr Beeton’s brother, David, who is also Jack’s father, said he was “absolutely disgusted” by the Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute William Abbott, the truck driver, after an inquest this week found he had failed to brake before the crash. Mr Beeton said: “He [Abbott] walks away without even a driving ban.”

Mr Abbott, 60, had told David Scott Morris, the assistant coroner, that some phlegm caught in his throat and made him “choke very hard”, causing him to drift across the road. He said he could do nothing to avoid the crash.

The coroner heard that it took six seconds for Mr Abbott to drift into oncoming traffic, hitting a Ford Galaxy before the van driven by Mr Beeton, who was pronounced dead at the scene. An East of England Air Ambulance helicopter, piloted by the Duke of Cambridge, airlifted Jack to hospital to be treated. Mr Beeton said his son was given oxygen by the Duke while paramedics worked on him.

Philip Beeton’s family have twice challenged the CPS decision not to prosecute Mr Abbott due to “insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction”. A crash investigation found there was nothing wrong with the lorry, that Mr Abbott was in generally good health, not intoxicated and was driving within the 50mph limit.