Louis Thorold: Coroner asked to examine licenses

Louis Thorold pictured with his mother Rachael just hours before the crash in January 2021

A coroner has been asked to examine issues around driver licensing after a five-month-old baby died in a crash while being pushed in his pram.

Louis Thorold died after being hit on the pavement of the A10 near Cambridge, on 22 January 2021.

Last year a driver, who argued she had undiagnosed dementia at the time, was cleared by reason of insanity.

A pre-inquest hearing into Louis' death was told his family had questions about licensing as well as the A10's layout.

A criminal trial last year heard Shelagh Robertson - aged 75 at the time of the court case - turned into the path of an oncoming van, forcing it on to the pavement where it hit Louis and his mother, Rachael.

Louis was pronounced dead on arrival at Addenbrooke's Hospital, while his mother spent 10 days in a coma and 118 days in hospital.

Her husband Chris Thorold later described his wife's survival as "miraculous".

Shelagh Robertson's defence team said she had undiagnosed Alzheimer's disease at the time of the crash

A crown court jury found Mrs Robertson not guilty of causing death by careless driving by reason of insanity.

On Wednesday, area coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Simon Milburn, said he had received correspondence from Louis' family which laid out "potential concerns about the road layout and also licencing issues in relation to [Mrs Robertson]".

Mr Thorold told the inquest at Peterborough Town Hall his family had questions about "why the system allowed her to have a valid driving license?".

He also said there had been a number of local authority safety audits of the A10 which included statistics on fatalities and asked "why they didn't act upon that information?".

Mr Milburn said it was his understanding that Mrs Robertson and her insurance company had declined to be involved in the inquest proceedings.

The hearing was adjourned until a full inquest, which is expected to take place within the next three months.