Teenager killed as she is pushed into path of uncle’s van... by fiance fumbling with brolly
A TEENAGER walking in the rain with her fiance died when he fumbled with their umbrella and accidentally pushed her into the road.
Grace Dyson, 18, then fell under the wheels of a van – that was being driven by her uncle.
The chances of the accident happening and the coincidence of a relative being behind the wheel were ‘unbelievable’, a policeman told an inquest yesterday.
Miss Dyson, an apprentice administrator, ‘wobbled and slipped like when you turn over on your ankle’, and the van driver had ‘no time to brake’, Detective Sergeant Noel Lowden told the hearing.
Miss Dyson’s heartbroken fiance, Jason Booth, 21, said he lost her in a ‘split second’. The couple, who had been dating for 14 months, were heading to a fish and chip shop in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire when tragedy struck.
Mr Booth, a chemistry student at Huddersfield University, was holding an umbrella over them both as they walked along a pavement in the next- door village of Thongsbridge.
He told the inquest: ‘It was raining quite badly.
‘It was quite a big umbrella with an elongated handle. On the side of the pavement we were walking down there was a dry- stone wall – I was nearest to the wall and Grace was on my left.’ When they passed under some trees that sheltered them from the rain, Mr Booth closed the umbrella. But ‘the metal end somehow got caught in a crevice’ of the wall, he said.
‘It made me jolt to the lefthand side. I remember seeing Grace’s foot slip over the edge. I think that’s when she fell.’
Driving past at that moment was labourer Ivan Beaumont – Miss Dyson’s uncle – who was coming home from work. He told police he had spotted his niece and was about to wave to her when she toppled into the road and under his Nissan Cabstar van. A passer-by rushed over to help but said there was little that could be done for Miss Dyson.
She was pronounced dead by the emergency services when they arrived. Mr Beaumont was questioned by police but not charged. Det Sgt Lowden said: ‘It all happened so quick and Grace went under the wheels.
‘It’s a tragic set of circumstances that she lost her footing at that exact time. Sadly this proved fatal. The chances of this occurring are unbelievable.’
Recording a road traffic accident verdict, assistant coroner Mary Burke said: ‘No one could have anticipated this was going to happen.
‘No one could have changed the pattern of events. It happened in fractions of a second.’
Miss Dyson’s mother, Lydia Beaumont, told the hearing in Huddersfield that her daughter was a ‘homebird’ with a ‘natural flair’ for languages and art.
She added: ‘Grace and Jason were very close – they did everything together.’
After last August’s tragedy, Mr Booth wrote a tribute to his fiancee on Facebook, saying: ‘Life is unbelievably cruel at times, but everyone that ever met you will hold you in their memories as that crazy but absolutely lovable person that you were.
‘I could never thank you enough for the incredible memories you’ve given me, that I’ll forever hold tightly to me.
‘I will be forever honoured and proud that I have your amazing self in my life.’