Mum kills son, 3, on first driving lesson
A MOTHER accidentally ran over and killed her three- yearold son while learning to drive for the first time, an inquest has heard.
Lyndsay Turner, 34, had been trying to manoeuvre the family’s Citroen C4 hatchback into a parking space when she hit Liam, who was playing outside their home with his sister.
His father Stephen pulled him from under the car and was driving him to hospital when he flagged down an ambulance.
Liam was airlifted to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with serious head injuries and died later. He had suffered irreversible brain damage.
Slipped
Norwich coroner’s court heard Mrs Turner had not driven the car before, did not have a provisional licence and was not insured when the accident happened on June 7.
In a statement, she said she asked her husband to teach her to drive and decided to move the car a short way to its parking space.
She told police: “My foot slipped and it jolted suddenly forward.”
Mr Turner had been Devastated mother Lyndsay Turner, 34 supervising her moving the car. Neighbour Amy Jones said she saw the car stutter as Mrs Turner, from Watton, Norfolk, pulled into the space, followed by Mr Turner shouting “stop” then a loud crunch.
She said: “Liam was bleeding really badly and I told Stephen to put him in the car and take him to hospital.”
PC Forbes Scott told the hearing Mrs Turner was on a public road and should not have been driving. But the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to bring charges.
Deputy coroner Nicholas Holroyd recorded a verdict of accidental death. He told the couple: “This was an appalling tragedy and you both have my profound sympathy for this loss. There are few parents who, when looking back, haven’t said to themselves ‘ that was a near thing’. Tragically this ended as disastrously as it did.” The couple said in a statement: “We are devastated by the loss of our darling little man. Liam was a happy little boy. Life will not be the same w i t h o u t
him.”