Young farmer died following crash on way home from charity dance after friends drank and drove
A young farmer died following a crash on the way home from a rural charity dance event after his two friends drank and drove.
Jake Skidmore, aged 21, was seriously injured in a crash on the B4364 at Wheathill, Burwarton, near Bridgnorth in the early hours of August 3 last year.
An inquest into his death at a packed Shropshire Coroner’s Court, Guildhall, Shrewsbury was told that Mr Skidmore and his friends had been travelling home from an event in Burwarton.
They had attended a charity dance event. The Burwarton Show was held on August 1 and an after-show charity dance was held the following day, August 2, into the early hours of August 3.
Mr Skidmore, a farm contractor who was from Burwarton but had been born in Ludlow, was a back seat passenger in a Volkswagen Polo, driven by his friend Will Rogers. Also in the car were their friends, front seat passenger Liam James and Kieran Powell in the back alongside Mr Skidmore.
Mr Rogers had initially been driving away from the event but turned around as if to drive back towards the showground.
Coming in the opposite direction was another friend of the young men, Solomon James, driving on his own in a Vauxhall Astra.
At around 2.40am, the vehicles collided on a bend. Mr Skidmore, Mr Powell and Solomon James did not have their seatbelts on.
Mr Skidmore was in a critical condition and was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, but his condition deteriorated and he died on August 9.
The drivers of the vehicles were both breathalysed at the scene. Solomon James was found to be over the limit and arrested. In custody he was blood tested and found to have 130 micrograms of alcohol per litre of blood, almost twice the legal limit of 80mcg.
Mr Rogers gave a roadside breath test reading of 34mcg per 100 millilitres of breath - just 1mcg shy of the legal limit - so he was not arrested.
There were no witnesses to the collision, so the only evidence gathered was that of police crash investigator Tim Viner, as well as a video taken on a mobile phone from inside the VW shortly before the incident.
That footage showed the car being driven in the middle of the road in the lead-up to the crash, and PC Viner said in a report that the young men in the car could be heard.
He said it would have been “distracting” for the driver, adding that “peer pressure” can result in drivers “showing off”.
He also said: “Newly qualified drivers with a car full of passengers of similar age are four times more likely to be in a fatal crash, compared with when driving alone.”
PC Viner said that while the legal drink drive limit is 35mcg per 100ml of breath, half a pint of beer is enough to impair driving ability.
He added that in 2019, 7,800 people were killed or seriously injured on UK roads in crashes involving a drink driver, and that a driver with 50 to 80mcg of alcohol per litre of blood is six times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash compared to someone with a zero reading.
The officer also found that one of the VW’s tyres had low pressure of 14 PSI, and that having four fully-grown adults in the car would have impacted on how the vehicle handled.
Other than the low tyre pressure, there were no vehicle or road defects that the investigator found.
The Crown Prosecution Service has considered the evidence available and has not proceeded with charges of death by careless or dangerous driving against either driver.
However, Solomon James was prosecuted for a simple charge of drink driving relating to the crash.
The 24-year-old, of Churchill Close, Ludlow, pleaded guilty to driving with alcohol above the specified limit at Telford Magistrates Court on May 30. He was banned from driving for 12 months and fined £451. He was also ordered to pay £85 in prosecution costs and a £184 victim surcharge, bringing his total legal bill to £720.
John Ellery, senior coroner for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, recorded a conclusion that Mr Skidmore’s death was as a result of a road traffic collision.
In court to listen to proceedings were Mr Skidmore’s mother Eve and sister Lauren, as well as Liam James, who was in the car when the crash happened.
Leaving the court, Mr Skidmore’s sister described him as “a pillar of the community”.
