A64 crash inquest: Coroner raises seat belt concerns after motorhome deaths

The crash happened near the Jinnah restaurant on the A64

A coroner is to ask the government to examine seat belt laws after a mother and two children died when the motorhome they were travelling in hit an HGV on the A64.

Shirley Hunt, 44, her daughter Ellie, nine, and son Oscar, six, died in the crash near Malton on 25 August 2021.

Mrs Hunt and her daughter were in the rear and were not wearing seat belts, the inquest in Northallerton heard.

Coroner Alison Norton said she would raise the issue with the government.

Under existing laws regarding converted motorhomes, there is no obligation to have seat belts fitted.

The inquest heard the family, from Rotherham, were returning to South Yorkshire after a week-long holiday in Whitby when the crash happened.

'Boom, like an explosion'

Mrs Hunt's husband Craig, who had been driving the converted motorhome, told the hearing he had 30 years' driving experience.

Describing the moment before the crash in a written statement read out in court, he said he had heard a "boom, like an explosion" before "a tyre blew and the steering wheel locked".

He said he "braked hard, but the vehicle didn't react" and seconds later crashed into the HGV which was parked in a lay-by.

He said he had lost consciousness in the collision and when he came round had tried to free his family but could not release them from the wreckage.

A six-year-old boy who was also in the vehicle at the time survived the crash.

PC Paddy Green of North Yorkshire Police, who investigated the crash, said an inspection revealed that the vehicle's front near-side tyre had suffered a sudden and unexpected deflation.

He said a hole had weakened the structure of the tyre but it would not have been possible to know the defect existed.

The inquest heard it was not possible to say whether Mrs Hunt and her daughter would have survived had they been wearing seats belts.

Concluding the three died from multiple injuries following a road accident, assistant coroner Ms Norton said the evidence showed there were no defects to the motor home and Mr Hunt's driving was not a factor.

She did however say she had "concerns that adults and children over three could travel in the rear of motorhomes without a seatbelt".

She said she would write to the Department for Transport to ask them to look at the issue.