Young life lost in moped crash

Published on 20th July 2006 in News

A 'gentle lad who was liked by everyone' died after his moped collided with a broken-down animal transporter, Hull Coroners' Court heard on Tuesday.

Sixteen-year-old Joshua Murdock, of Station Road in Rawcliffe, was riding his moped home after visiting his girlfriend Laura in Snaith when the accident happened at around 8.30pm on Thursday, March 9.

Annice Douglas told the court that she lived on a farm in Epworth and on the day of the crash she had taken their 7.5-tonne livestock carrier to Lancashire, where she collected cattle and took them to a farm in Pollington.

She told the court that she left intending to go through Snaith, then Thorne and eventually get onto the motorway. However, she took a wrong turn at Gyme Corner and headed for Rawcliffe instead of Thorne. She realised her mistake and once she had gone over the railway crossing she stopped.

She told the court that she pulled the vehicle onto the grass verge but that because of its size it was still partly on the road. She said as the vehicle stopped it 'shuddered'.

Mrs Douglas stayed in the lorry, then rang her husband for directions. As she was speaking to him the vehicle?s engine cut out and she could not re-start it.

Mrs Douglas told the court that she thought the vehicle?s lights were on. She admitted that she had not thought to switch her hazard lights on and had been sitting there for more than 20 minutes before the accident happened.

She heard the bang as Josh crashed into the rear of her vehicle. She got out and saw the rider lying on the road with his moped on top of him. He was awake and spoke to her. She covered him with her coat and then flagged down an oncoming car.

The driver of that vehicle was Vicky Hookham, who had been horse riding at Pets Pad, a few hundred yards away, with her two young daughters.

As she went over the railway crossing she saw the animal transporter on the road and could see a woman standing at the rear of the vehicle waving her arms. Mrs Hookham stopped behind the vehicle and put her hazard lights on.

It was then that she saw Josh on the road. She asked the woman if she had called 999 and the woman said that she had not because she did not know where she was. Mrs Hookham rang 999 and then recognised Josh, so she also rang his father.

Mrs Hookham?s statement confirmed that the vehicle had no lights on when she came across it and that the road was dark.

Student Craig Brown also stopped at the scene to help. He had been travelling home from football practice in Hensall on his moped when he came across the crash.

The court heard he saw Mrs Hookham's vehicle with its hazard lights on as he crossed the railway lines. He also saw the broken-down vehicle in front of it, then the moped and its rider on the road.

Held school friend as

paramedics worked

After Mr Bown had stopped he realised it was Josh, someone he knew from school. He held Josh?s head while emergency services worked on helping him.

His statement said: 'He was awake and talking. I was joking with him that he would need new clothes as the paramedics were cutting his.'

A statement read to the court from Josh's mother, Mrs Sally Murdock, said she and her husband, John, were at home when they received a phone call informing them of Josh's accident. They immediately went to the scene, which was only minutes away from their home.

Mrs Murdock went in the ambulance with her son to Doncaster Hospital. He was in terrible pain but was awake and speaking to her.

Initially she and her husband were told Josh had not suffered any life-threatening injuries but later that night a scan showed a significant injury to the aorta in Josh's chest and his family were told he was in a critical condition.

Mrs Murdock said she and her husband were advised to go home and get some of Josh's things. There they received a phone call saying their son's condition had become worse and he was being transferred to Sheffield Hospital.

His parents raced to Sheffield but were told on arriving there that their son had died.

Mrs Murdock described her son as 'a gentle lad who was liked by everyone' and that his ambition was to be an engineer. She also said that his moped was his 'pride and joy' and that he was a confident rider.

Vehicle examiner Ian Charlton told the court that his tests had proved the animal transporter was in an unroadworthy condition because of a defective battery and alternator. There were no lights on at the rear of the vehicle at the time of the crash. He believed there had been long-term problems with the vehicle and these could have been a contributing factor in the crash.

He also told the court that Josh's moped had a maximum speed of 30mph but that it had been fitted with an expansion box and therefore had an increased maximum speed but that could have only been up to an additional 10mph.

However, despite the bike being well maintained, Mr Charlton said that because of the expansion box the vehicle should have been classed as a motor-bike rather than a moped, that Josh would have needed an appropriate licence to ride it and that this could have been a factor in the crash due to the higher speed.

'Far from ideal' place to park

Crash investigator Pc Timothy Clark told the court that the place where Mrs Douglas parked her vehicle was 'far from ideal' and that she made no attempt to warn other motorists of her predicament.

He said: 'She rang her husband but would have been much better off ringing the police instead.'

He reported that Josh's moped had hit the vehicle upright and that there was no sign of emergency braking, indicating that he did not have time to react on seeing the lorry. He added that Josh could have thought the vehicle was moving, that his vision might have been obscured by the rain on his helmet visor, or that it was so dark that he never saw the vehicle as it had no lights on.

Dr Campbell, who carried out the post mortem, told the court that Josh sustained a number of external and internal injuries including a fractured skull, severed aorta, broken wrists and broken legs.

She recorded the cause of death as being due to multiple injuries consistent with a road accident.

l The inquest was adjourned until a date yet to be fixed, when the medical details and procedures once Josh was admitted to Doncaster Hospital will be heard.

No verdict has yet been recorded.