Crash which killed four people was caused by lorry driver's coughing fit black out - Express.co.uk

Driver Owen Davis was suffering from a whooping cough infection when he blacked out near Seaham, County Durham, in April last year.

His 15-tonne Volvo lorry drove over a Renault Scenic, killing the driver by Robert Reed, 75, his wife Margaret, 74, their one-year-old great-granddaughter Destiny and her mother Natalie, 18.

The lorry also careered through a hedge and up a bank, ending up 100m away on a golf course, the inquest in Crook heard today.

Mr Davis was not aware he had struck the car until an off-duty police officer, who was playing golf and had witnessed the crash, told him.

He said: "I said 'Oh Jesus Christ is he [the driver] fine?'

"He said 'Yeah, yeah, he's fine, he's getting sorted out now'."

It was only later at the Sunderland Royal Infirmary where he was being treated that police told him that the four people had died.

Mr Davis, who is married with two sons, became upset when he recalled that devastating moment.

Examination of Mr Reed's Renault showed it may have moved closer to the verge before the collision to avoid the lorry, but that the crash was unavoidable.

The truck went over the top of the car after veering onto the wrong side of the road, the inquest heard. The lorry's tachograph showed it was travelling at 44mph when the head-on collision happened.

Mr Reed, his great-granddaughter Destiny and the baby's mother would have died almost instantly, the coroner was told.

Mrs Reed, from Houghton-le-Spring, died some weeks later in hospital from multiple injuries.