Mystery over cause of Shropshire milk tanker crash tragedy
A Shropshire landscape gardener who died when his van veered into the path of a milk tanker was not wearing a seatbelt, an inquest heard.
It remains a mystery why Ben Murphy steered onto the other side of the road and hit the Muller lorry on the A529 at Spoonley, on July 7.
But there was nothing the driver of the tanker carrying 20,000 litres of milk to Muller Dairy in Market Drayton could have done to avoid the crash, Shropshire and Telford& Wrekin coroner John Ellery said.
Mr Murphy, 34, of Rectory Lane, Adderley, died of multiple injuries.
Tanker driver David Hodgkiss told the hearing in Shrewsbury: "It was a nice dry sunny day. I had got halfway up the bank and all of a sudden I saw this white van that was starting to come across the white line towards me. It was only a matter of seconds.
"He came across and hit me. Apparently I was doing about 34 mph. The weight of the wagon slows me down. I was carrying about 20,000 litres of milk."
Mr Hodgkiss said he did not see anything that could have caused Mr Murphy to swerve.
He said: "Apparently I braked and as I did it I swerved to the left and ended up in the hedge."
PC Nick Stafford, a forensic collision investigator, for West Mercia Police said Mr Murphy had not been wearing a seatbelt.
But Mr Murphy's mother, Pauline Beech, said after the inquest: "It is out of character for Ben not to wear his seatbelt."
PC Stafford said officers had been unable to find what had caused Mr Murphy to swerve. There were no mechanical faults in either vehicle which could have contributed to the crash and there was no evidence of any mobile phone use in the van.
Recording a verdict of death due to a road traffic collision, Mr Ellery said: "We simply don't know what caused Mr Murphy to turn to the right and I am not going to speculate."
