Retired Navy captain died in a Mid Devon car crash
A RETIRED Royal Navy Captain who had been driving back to his Mid Devon home with his wife after going out to lunch tragically died after he pulled out of a junction into the path of an oncoming car.
An inquest into the death of 84-year-old Richard Stenlake heard he passed away at the scene of the crash on Post Hill, between Tiverton and Halberton, on May 26, 2023.
The inquest at Exeter Coroner’s Court heard that although faded give-way road markings at the junction by Tiverton Golf Club were said to have not contributed to Mr Stenlake’s death, police raised concerns with Devon County Council about potential future incidents.
In a statement, Mr Stenlake’s wife Aileen told how they married in 1970 and in 1991 he retired after a long career in the Royal Navy. She described him as having been “fit and well”. In terms of his driving, she said his last collision had been more than 20 years ago.
On the day of crash, she recalled they had visited Redwoods Inn in Lowman Cross for their usual weekly lunch outing and on the way back home to Tiverton, Mr Stenlake came to the junction leading onto Post Hill Road at around 2.15pm.
She recalled him stopping and moving away and then “almost instantly” hearing a loud bang and “deafening thump”.
Mrs Stenlake said of her recollection at the junction: “He accelerated quickly and I remember him saying ‘oh’ in the moment immediately before the bang.”
The impact caused their vehicle to rotate almost 360 degrees and travel downhill before crashing into a verge on the offside carriageway. The other vehicle came to a stop after hitting a lamppost.
The driver of the black Audi A3 car which collided with Mr Stenlake’s blue VW Polo told in a statement how she had been driving from Tiverton to Willand and described it as having been a bright sunny day with little traffic on the roads.
She recalled driving along Post Hill Road, which has a speed limit of 40mph, when she saw a car pull out of a junction and accelerate across her path.
She said: “The blue car should have stopped at the junction. I genuinely could not have done anything to avoid the crash.”
A number of witness statements were provided to police, along with dashcam footage from a vehicle travelling behind Mr Stenlake. Evidence was also heard in a statement from a man who had left the London Fire Brigade two weeks prior and stopped at the scene to offer his help.
He recalled how Mr Stenlake had initially been conscious after the crash but stopped breathing and could not be saved despite the efforts of emergency crews.
The cause of his death was multiple injuries. Motor control constable William Welch told the inquest dashcam footage had not shown any prior signs of Mr Stenlake being anything other than a “careful and competent driver” before the crash.
He said he did not believe the Audi driver would have had time to react and confirmed they had not been speeding.
MPC Welch concluded: “For reasons unknown, he failed to see the Audi approaching from the righthand side.”
Recording a conclusion of road traffic collision, senior coroner Mr Spinney said: “The collision was unintentional in what appears to have been a momentary lapse of concentration leaving (the Audi driver) no time to react.”