Wrexham couple John and Nerys Jackson died following crash

John and Nerys Jackson, from Bwlchgwyn, died following a road traffic collision near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, on December 9, 2023, when they were returning to Wrexham from RAF Brize Norton where Mrs Jackson, 57, had returned from working at the Ascension Islands.

Their Skoda Octavia car, which was being driven by Mr Jackson, 60, collided head on with a Ford Transit van with West Mercia Police livery that was being driven by Bethan Davis, a crime scene investigation officer with the force.

Their daughter Ffion Jackson, who was sleeping in the front seat of the Skoda car, was left with serious injuries.

Shropshire Coroner John Ellery told the court that he reached his conclusion based on the evidence of Detective Sergeant Julie Lyman from West Midlands Police, who investigated the accident because it involved West Mercia Police.

She told the court that on the basis of verbal evidence from Miss Jackson and dashcam footage from the police van, she believes that Mr Jackson was likely distracted and may have entered into a ‘micro-sleep’.

The court heard from Miss Jackson’s statement that she thought she heard her father ‘pottering about at around 1am’ after she had gone to bed and that he woke her at 4am to make the drive to Oxfordshire to collect his wife.

In the statement read by Mr Ellery, Miss Jackson said she had drifted in and out of sleep through the journey while her mother was in the back seat.

She told the court that her father would not have driven if he did not feel up to it.

Mr Ellery described the A458 near Morville Heath, where the incident happened, as veering off to the left with the opposite carriageway coming head onto towards with a solid white line separating the two carriageways.

The court heard submitted witness evidence that Mr Jackson had straddled the white line, causing one car to swerve away from him, and that he collided head-on with the police van.

One driver, Ronald Ball, called the driving erratic and said he could see Mr Jackson ‘turning his head to speak to a rear passenger’ and then drove away.

Holly Wainwright – directly behind Mr Jackson’s Skoda – gave a statement to say that Mr Jackson had drifted to the centre of the road while all witnesses questioned said Mrs Davis ‘could not have avoided the collision’.

Mr Ellery concluded that Mr and Mrs Jackson died because of a road traffic collision.

He added: “Sadly, it seems Mr Jackson while driving towards home drifted into the path of the police vehicle.

“There’s no direct evidence but circumstantial evidence suggests that Mr Jackson fell into what DS Lyman calls a micro sleep.

“On the evidence, I think that is an explanation I can consider.

“I think it more likely or not that he drifted into the police van path during a process of micro sleep and could not control the vehicle.

“I offer you my condolences for your loss and the injuries.”