Death of boy killed in crash an accident – coroner

The death of a seven-year-old boy who was hit by a van and a car on a busy A road was a “tragic accident”, a coroner has ruled.

William Brown had crossed the A259 Sandgate esplanade in Folkestone to fetch a football shortly before he was struck, an inquest into his death heard.

The boy’s cause of death last December was “severe head injuries”, area coroner Katrina Hepburn told Maidstone Coroner’s Court.

Stewart Powell, 49, from Dunstall Gardens, St Mary’s Bay, who was driving the van, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene and driving without valid insurance in July.