Tragedy should be a warning – coroner
A CORONER has said the death of a teenager walking along an unlit section of the A149 at Heacham at night, in dark clothing, should be a warning to others.
Greater Norfolk coroner William Armstrong urged greater care from pedestrians using roads at night, in recording that 19-year-old Suffolk labourer Mathew Theobald died as the result of a collision with a van on May 8.
Thursday’s inquest at Lynn heard from people who had been driving along the A149, near the Lamsey Lane junction, that night that Mr Theobald, from Stanstead, near Sudbury, and another man had been walking in the road with their backs to the traffic – even though there was a footpath the other side.
Mr Armstrong said: “For Mathew to be walking along this unlit road in the dark of night, with dark clothing and his back to the traffic, was a foolish and extremely unwise thing to do.
“I can only hope the circumstances of this tragedy will serve as a warning to other people of the dangers of walking in this way at night – it’s a hazardous and very dangerous thing to do.”
Mr Theobald suffered multiple injuries and died at the scene. Witnesses said that it was a particularly dark night, there were high hedges on both sides of the road and no street lighting there.
Vauxhall Vivaro van driver Mark Bailey was travelling home to Snettisham from Hunstanton when the collision happened at 9.41pm. He was doing about 50mph when there was a sudden impact. “It was just instant,” he said.
Miss Jodie Wilson, who was driving towards her Heacham home, saw “two chaps dressed in black with hoods up” walking the other side of the road towards Lynn. The taller man was in the middle of the Lynn-bound lane.
She said: “My immediate thought was, ‘Oh my gosh, what are those guys doing walking in the middle of the road when there’s a footpath the other way?’ I could barely see them.”
Land Rover driver Jason Whitmore, who was behind Mr Bailey’s van, remembered its brake lights coming on and something going through the air. “The van driver was driving normally and there was nothing he could have done to avoid a collision,” he said.
Mr Whitmore said the other pedestrian “appeared from nowhere”, and was shouting and being “an absolute pain”.
Hunstanton-bound Mrs Joanna Guy saw the walkers in her dipped headlights. “I thought, ‘What are they doing? That’s an accident waiting to happen’,” she said.
The coroner said: “It’s very clear from all the evidence that there’s nothing Mr Bailey could have done to avoid the collision.”
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Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
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