Family's tributes to US-born Oswestry hospital 'healer' who died in A5 crash near Shrewsbury
Tributes have been paid to a much-loved member of a hospital orthotics team who died as the result of a crash.
New York-born Eric Alexander Stephani, aged 48, had been working with the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry for four years having retrained in his 40s.
An inquest was told that Mr Stephani had died instantly after being involved in a head-on crash while overtaking on the A5 near Shrewsbury on November 26, 2023.
The coroner said that the evidence pointed to him being in excess of the 60mph limit during the manoeuvre while he was driving northbound near Churncote Island.
John Ellery, the senior coroner for Shropshire and Telford said that Mr Stephani had lost control of his car and the southbound driver had been in their own lane.
Alexandra Stephani, Mr Stephani's mother, told the coroner that her son would have been "appalled" at the thought that he had caused pain to anyone else. She and other members of the family had come over from the USA to be at Thursday's inquest.
She said: "He would have been appalled and distressed that he had caused pain to anyone else. He worked in the prosthetics department and was a healer."
His funeral and celebration of life has seen people come from around the globe to "honour his name".
"They said he was the kindest, nicest person they ever knew."
The coroner was told that at the age of 40 Mr Stephani had gone to university and earned a first class honours degree. When his fellow students had birthdays he would bake them a cake.
