KILLED DAY AFTER BUYING SCOOTER
Rider died instantly after lorry crash:
A SCOOTER rider who died after a crash with an articulated lorry had only bought the machine the day before, an inquest heard.
Jacqueline Owen, 49, known as Jacky, died instantly after striking the lorry in the smash on the A487 near Porthmadog on June 25 last year.
The grandmother was riding the brand new Vespa behind her husband Gary on a journey from their home in Stoke-onTrent to Portmeirion.
Mr Owen told the hearing at Caernarfon his wife had been riding scooters for several years but the new machine had automatic gears and she was used to mechanical gears.
They were not in any hurry and Mrs Owen appeared to be riding the new machine “quite happily”, he added.
David Abernathy-Clark, forensic collision investigator, said witnesses told police a blue scooter, which may have been ridden by Mrs Owen, failed to negotiate a left-hand bend.
Witnesses spotted the scooter a few miles before the accident scene, and it travelled between two motorbikes before returning to its proper lane.
Mr Abernathy-Clark concluded there were no environmental factors that caused the accident but was unable to explain why Mrs Owen had failed to negotiate two lefthand bends in less than five miles.
There was nothing to suggest the lorry’s trailer had drifted into the other lane of the road, which was suggested by Mrs Owen’s father, John Wrench.
The officer said: “It was travelling on a straight stretch of road approaching the corner and I am quite satisfied it was in its own lane.”
Stuart Davies, the lorry driver, said he was driving the vehicle from Haverfordwest to a cheese factory in Llangefni with a full load of milk.
On an uphill section just before the accident scene, he said he believed the vehicle was travelling at 15mph but had accelerated to about 30mph when the scooter struck. Mr Davies said he saw the first scooter approach and pass, followed by the blue scooter ridden by Mrs Owen.
“For some reason it went into the side of the tractor. There was no great speed involved,” he said.
Louise Young was driving her car behind the lorry and noted the vehicle was going very slowly as it approached the corner.
“Then out of nowhere I saw a bike come off the corner and straight into the lorry. The rider went flying off the bike and I stopped straight away,” she said.
Philip Jones, vehicle examiner, said he looked at both vehicles after the collision and found no mechanical difficulties that would have contributed to the accident.
Dr Mark Lord, pathologist, said Mrs Owen suffered serious injuries to the chest consistent to colliding with a lorry.
He added toxicology tests for alcohol and drugs were negative. Concluding Mrs Owen died as the result of an accident, North Wales senior coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said the evidence did not explain why the accident happened.
“The weather was fine, there was nothing on the road and neither vehicle were travelling at high speed.
“There is nothing to show why she pulled out into the other lane. I can’t explain why it happened but it did,” the coroner said.
After her death, family and friends paid tribute to a woman they said had a “heart of gold”.
They described Mrs Owen as “a loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and doting grandmother” and said she was very well respected in the scooter community.