1:20pm Saturday 4th July 2009
Driver inexperience may have caused the car crash which killed 18-year-old Gary Conjoice in December last year, but poor road surface may also have contributed.
An inquest into the death was held by HM coroner for Pembrokeshire Michael Howells on Monday and he will now make representations to the highway authority that Old Hakin Road be reclassified and resurfaced.
Coroner’s officer for Dyfed-Powys police, Jeremy Davies, said that at around 11.25am on December 15th Mr Conjoice was driving his mum’s Vauxhall Agila to Pembrokeshire College along Old Hakin Road, an unclassified road.
Approaching Meadow View, Mr Conjoice appeared to lose control of the vehicle and collided with a fuel tanker.
The driver of the tanker Phillip John gave evidence at the inquest. He said he was travelling back to Murco that morning after delivering around the north of the county.
He said: “There were no cars about, the next minute a car appeared on the corner and the back end seemed to go out of control and the next thing he was across the road.
“He just seemed to lose it on the bend, I’m not saying the boy was speeding at all.”
Mr Conjoice hit the tanker cab side on and was sent spinning into the verge. The rear of the car hit a tree stump and span back out into the road, hitting the tank.
Collision investigator PC Richard Jessop said that a slight defect was found on the corner, which may have caused Mr Conjoice to lose control due to his inexperience, having passed his test in February that year.
Mrs Conjoice pointed out that he was a good driver and many of his friends had said he was always very cautious.
A post mortem found that Mr Conjoice had multiple head injuries and Mr Howells said that death was likely to have been instantaneous.
Recording his verdict, Mr Howells said: “Yet another tragic accident involving a young driver. By all accounts Gary was a very good, safe driver. He was driving with care and in a tidy manner — not fast or recklessly. Gary died from multiple injuries sustained in a road traffic collision.”
He said that in the absence of another factors, the road surface and Mr Conjoice’s inexperience were the likely cause of the accident.
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