Shropshire mother killed by car while mowing her lawn
A 76-year-old woman who died after being knocked down as she cut the lawn outside her home in Shropshire may not have heard the car above the sound of the mower, an inquest heard.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Shropshire coroner Mr John Ellery said the circumstances surrounding Delia Williams's death were not known.
Mrs Williams, of Upper Mickley Farm, near Tern Hill, died from multiple injuries after she was hit by a black Ford Galaxy in Mickley Lane on August 7 last year.
She was airlifted to a hospital in Staffordshire where she died soon after arrival.
Mr Ellery said: "These things happen without notice, without warning.
"There are too many imponderables to say exactly how the incident occurred."
At the inquest in Wem yesterday, car driver Roy Price, 55, of Whitchurch, said she ran out in front of him.
Mr Price was driving the car from Manchester to Victoria Garage in Whitchurch as a favour for his friend because it was due a full service and MoT. He made a detour to pick someone up.
Mr Price said: "As I approached the farm I came round a bit of a bend and she had her back to me, as I approached she ran out in front of me. I swerved, there is nothing I could have done."
Mrs Williams's son Robert questioned whether the car had mounted the verge and knocked his mother over while she was on the grass. He told the inquest that his mother was in very good health and had mowed the lawn every two weeks for about 44 years.
He said she dropped the cuttings on the verge opposite three or four times each time she mowed.
"Just before the collision I came out the house and could hear the car coming from the Fauls direction," he said.
"It sounded to me as if it was travelling quite fast, that is what made me notice it. I saw it and less than a second later I heard a thud."
He estimated the car was travelling at 55mph but Constable Ian Edwards, from West Mercia Police investigation unit, said: "The vehicle could have been travelling between 51mph and 36mph, depending on reaction times and if full braking was used.
"Having heard the evidence today it tends to suggest the speed was closer to 35mph.
"If a vehicle did travel along the verge it didn't leave a tyre mark because of the condition of the ground and the grass had been cut short.
"Tests show the sound of the mower would have almost certainly exceeded the sound of the approaching car when she was stood by it."
