Much-loved husband and dad died in A15 tragedy after returning to broken-down car
A much-loved North Ferriby husband and father was tragically hit by a lorry on the A15 when he returned to the broken-down car he had been travelling in with his wife and daughter.
Flooring businessman, Trevor Ward, 74, died in the collision near Barton on September 11 last year, an inquest heard.
The broken down Suzuki Swift emitted a massive wall of smoke which hindered the Mercedes lorry driver’s visibility as it collided with Mr Ward and the rear of the car.
He and his wife and daughter Megan had got out of the car due to the fumes from the faulty fuel pump to the engine and took shelter on a nearby verge in the darkness of the night. The family car was half off and half on the inside lane of the dual carriageway a short distance from the Barton Interchange.
But Mr Ward went back to the car for an unknown reason. Daughter Megan walked back down the verge of the northbound carriageway shining the torch on her mobile phone to warn any on-coming motorists. But moments later her father was struck by the lorry and died at the scene.
At Grimsby Town Hall, assistant coroner for Greater Lincolnshire, Marianne Johnson said he died as a result of a road traffic collision.
Police forensic collision investigator, PC Bhupinder Sood said: “Due to the reduced visibility, it is, in my opinion, unlikely the smoke would have been immediately obvious to the driver of the Mercedes lorry as he approached. It would have led to him having insufficient time and distance to avoid the collision with the deceased and the Suzuki. The primary causation must rest with the actions of Mr Ward, who for unknown reasons, entered the carriageway from the relative safety of the grass verge.”
A forensic examination of the Suzuki showed it had three loose bolts which caused a fault in the high pressure fuel system.
Mrs Johnson said she could not say why Mr Ward was where he was at the time. Addressing the family, she said: “You may have to accept that there are questions to which there will never be answers.”
Diane Fawcett-Ward had taken her husband of 30 years and their daughter Megan to Scawby, near Brigg to visit her parents. They made the journey to North Ferriby around 7.30pm.
She said Trevor was “the best husband and father you could wish for.” In tribute, Mrs Fawcett-Ward said: “He was the life and soul of the party. You heard him before you saw him. He was often whistling and he was popular at work.” She added her loss was “absolutely devastating” and the family are still in shock. “He was so proud of his girls,” she said.
Mrs Fawcett-Ward said the family car had over 100,000 miles on the clock and had taken them for a family holiday to Cornwall in July that year and had been regularly maintained and checked.
She said there had been a smell of diesel as they left her parents’ home and she drove steadily back to North Ferriby, without any faults indicated on the car. Without warning the car stopped, though the engine was still revving.
Even when she turned it off, it continued revving and filled the carriageway with smoke. The three got out and stood on the verge.
In her statement read at the inquest, daughter Megan said she walked a short distance back down the A15, as she could not see her mother or father and used the feel of the car to work out where she was. The smoke was so dense she could not see. She shone the torch on her phone and saw a lorry heading towards the car.
She said she saw her dad at the rear of the car. “I did not know why he was there,” she said. The lorry did not alter its path and there was no braking and she heard a loud bang.
The lorry driver, George Agar, stopped the lorry in a layby a short distance from the collision. He walked back to the scene and then walked away feeling unwell.
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Another motorist, Michael Walker, said he was returning from Grimsby to the North Bank when he encountered the “wall of grey” smoke and moved to the outside lane. He said he had not seen the car either. He said he had never, in many years of driving, seen “such an instantaneous loss of vision” due to the smoke.
Mr Agar, 63, said in a statement read at the inquest that he had delivered a lorry load of potatoes to a Scunthorpe factory and was heading back to the North Bank. He said he was travelling at 53 to 54mph when he saw what he thought was fog.
“It totally engulfed my vehicle. As soon as I saw this I started to brake and was still braking. I was shocked when I saw the car,” he said. The lorry driver said his vehicle, with 35ft-trailer, scraped the broken down car.
Crash investigator PC Sood said the force of the impact with the lorry on the car had forced the rear wheel to be pushed into the body of the car. He said the Highway Code recommends anyone from a broken down car should illuminate hazard lights and take safety on the verge of a road, which is what the family did.
He said: “But that would not have made any difference because the smoke was that thick.” He added there was insufficient time for the lorry driver to see Mr Ward on the road, due to the large plumes of dense smoke which completely obstructed his view.
The collision investigator said there had been no significant reduction in speed by the lorry driver. The investigator was questioned by the family’s barrister. Gordon Exall, who asked if he was aware that the lorry driver had been convicted of using his mobile phone during the journey from Scunthorpe.
The police officer said he was aware. It was not in use at the time of the collision and had been while the lorry was some distance prior to the collision, he said.
Following the hearing, Mr Ward’s daughter Sian and his sister Barbara Wallis said in tribute that he grew up with his elder brother Michael and younger sister Barbara in Summergangs Road, Hull. He was educated at Cavendish Road and Hull College of Arts & Crafts.
After leaving school, Trevor started his employment at Hollis Bros. as an apprentice floor layer, eventually running his own business and travelling up and down the country, loving the camaraderie on the various sites he worked at.
He married at the age of 21 and brought up three children with his first wife, buying a parcel of land in Easington and building their house “Stiancot” named after his children. The family had an enthusiastic, rural life on the coast there where he was “an exciting, full of fun dad”.
In 1983, they moved to Jarratt Street and he renovated a five-storey town house opposite Hull New Theatre.
Barbara said: “He continued working and was a popular face on sites all over the country, evident by the number of friends and acquaintances who attended his Celebration of Life service at Hessle Church.
“He was an amazing dad, granddad, great grandad, brother and friend to all who he came in contact with and had a laugh which you heard before you ever saw him.”
Mr Ward met Diane at Humberside Airport where she worked and he did contract work. They married in the Seychelles and eventually moved to North Ferriby where they had two daughters.
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