Driver's coughing fit may have led to double fatal collision, court told

Kevin Byrne, 48, and his wife Carol, aged 49, were both killed in the accident on the Shrewsbury to Welshpool road in April last year.

The car, a black Vauxhall Astra, had twice veered across the carriageway in the moments before the collision.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday the jury was told the accident happened just after midday on Sunday, April 21 last year.

Car driver David Cox, 49, from Atherstone, in Warwickshire, denies two charges of causing death by careless driving.

The court heard that Mr Byrne was the rider of the couple's Cruiser motorcycle and Mrs Byrne was the pillion passenger as they travelled towards Welshpool.

The couple, of Hazelmere Estate, Rhayader, Powys, had been returning from a motorcycle rally.

Cox's car was had travelling in the opposite direction and was in collision with the motorcycle on a right hand bend on the A458 at Rowton, near Halfway House.

Mr Thomas Kenning, prosecuting, said that neither vehicle was speeding, there no mechanical problems with either the car or motorcycle and the weather was fine and dry.

He said the issue in the trial was why the defendant's car moved over into the opposite lane. Mr Kenning said the defendant's mother, a front seat passenger, had passed Cox a sweet which had set off a coughing and choking episode.

"The central issue was whether the defendant was in control of the car or was he driving without due care and attention.

"The prosecution say that when he was coughing or choking he should have taken measures to prevent the car going into the on-coming lane," he said.

Eyewitness Carl Millward told the jury he had been travelling towards Shrewsbury and had been behind the Vauxhall Astra for about 10 miles and had seen nothing untoward about the defendant's driving.

He said as they approached the bend at Rowton the black car had veered over the white line but had immediately moved back into the carriageway.

The trial continues.