Teen killed in bizarre car accident
In a sad discovery, a female teen was killed in a freak car accident, after the vehicle she was travelling in was hit by a boat.
A jury heard how a millionaire, who was towing a trailer with a dinghy aboard behind his Range Rover Sport, caused the crash.
The boat’s mast broke loose just as it passed the victim’s oncoming Rover saloon, driven by the teenager, in Bewdley.
It is thought that the mast smashed through the windscreen, missing the male motorist, but fatally injuring his 19-year-old front seat passenger. She suffered serious head personal injury and died in hospital two hours later.
Crash court case
Prosecutor Peter Arnold, told Hereford Crown Court, that the 48-year-old heating engineer, from Bewdley, failed to secure the mast, after leaving a sailing club at Chelmarsh reservoir.
“The mast swung out like a lance in a medieval joust when two horsemen approach each other. By an unhappy quirk of fate, it pierced the windscreen, missed the driver by a whisker but struck the unfortunate young lady a fatal blow. She didn't stand a chance,” said Arnold. The defendant refuses liability of the death of the teen by dangerous driving.
The two teens were driving back from the cinema, on the night of June 4th in 2008. They were on the B4194 out of Bewdley, when the Range Rover approached from the Button Oak direction.
The young driver spoke of the ordeal. He said that he heard a loud crack, whilst the female passenger was sending a text.
“My mouth filled with glass. I said ‘what the hell was that’ but Sarah didn't respond. At first I thought we'd been hit by a brick or a bat.
“I pulled over but [the victim] was completely still. She was still holding her phone with her head down. The pole was in the car between us.”
He was unable to get out of the car because the mast was blocking the door. As a result, two men from another car removed the mast and helped him escape.
He saw that his friend had serious injuries and held a jumper against her face to stop the blood flow. The defendant, a director of a central heating firm, turned his car around and returned to the scene. He and his wife were both horrified to see what had happened.
Mr Arnold alleged that there were a number of “deficiencies” in the way the boat had been prepared for its road journey to the motorist’s home on the fatal night.
He said investigators found that a rachet mechanism used to keep the boat firm on its trolley was slack. He also claimed the boat was not securely tied to the trolley and the trolley was not attached to its road base by a retaining pin.
He said a responsible driver would have made sure that the mast did not come out of its boat mounting.
Mr Arnold stated: “The culmination of these deficiencies may have led to more movement of the boat. It was not as secure as it should have been.”
The trial continues.
Updated on 09/11/2009