# Terrible accident this morning (Inquest result edit)



## Sundial (May 11, 2005)

A lorry and a campervan have been involved in an accident on the A31 at Corfe Mullen, just outside the Esso Garage this morning.

Sadly the driver of the campervan has died and his passenger airlifted to Southampton Hospital. There was also another injured person.

How devastating for the family.....my thoughts are with them.

Sundial






Site helper note- Title edited to reflect recent post


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## Snunkie (Mar 21, 2011)

Absolutely devastating


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

http://m.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/11363208.A31_completely_closed_after_fatal_crash/


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## Sundial (May 11, 2005)

*Accident*

Thank you, Stanner....I could not load the link....

It is a very difficult place to exit if you want to turn right ....and traffic backs up, because it is only one lane, when anyone tries to access the garage from the west.

Just awful...

Sundial


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## The-Cookies (Nov 28, 2010)

agree absolutely awful. terrible news for their family


John


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## Kaytutt (Feb 5, 2013)

That's just so awful and so sad


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## androidGB (May 26, 2005)

Looks dreadful

Accident

Sympathies for the family

Andrew


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

I don't know 
What to say


It's jus too much
Im upset


Bless the

Family

Alda


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

that van is a real mess, truck as well; he must have been going quite fast to do that amount of damage, you don't get that with a glancing blow.


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## Sundial (May 11, 2005)

*Accident*

.... Having seen a photo showing the lorry's skid marks in a straight line on the left hand side of the road, I did wonder if this was a foreign driver who has turned out of the garage onto the wrong side of the road.

Poor lorry driver ....working for the Council and who probably knew the road well.

Whatever the reason, so so sad.....

Sundial


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

don't think so, looks like a rear hab door on the Uk nearside. Could be a swift / Elddis?


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## moblee (Dec 31, 2006)

Teletext on BBC1 say's the Motorhome driver's from Fareham, Hampshire.


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## baldeagle7470 (Sep 21, 2010)

I was there last week staying at the True Lovers Knot which incidentally is not a nice C&CC 5 van site but that's a story for another day!!
Meet friends regularly at that service station and have seen some dodgy manoeuvres there.
Sympathy to everyone involved,a tragic accident.
There but for the grace of God.


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

moblee said:


> Teletext on BBC1 say's the Motorhome driver's from Fareham, Hampshire.


So did the link to the Bournemouth Echo......... :wink:


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## Charisma (Apr 17, 2008)

Autotrail Tracker I think. Terrible accident. Sympathies and prayers for all concerned and their families.

Dave


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

That's a road and a place we know very well - the fuel is the cheapest between Exeter and Southampton, not a nice place to exit from and the limit is 60mph on that road which is single carriageway - this is not the first collision there has been there from memory....

I feel devastated for all those involved, never an easy thing to explain, and as others have said, "there bit for the Grace of God"

Dave


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## 96299 (Sep 15, 2005)

gutted reading this  sympathy to the family concerned.

steve


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

How very Sad.

Could have been all sorts of reasons.

Sone years ago, an Italian client of ours who had lived in the UK for 30 years. Went over to Italy to do a factory tour. When He came out, he wrongly drove on the left and was hit by a wagon. He survived.

My heart goes out to the families.

TM


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## Sundial (May 11, 2005)

*Accident*

........so mangled, I did not notice that. I suppose we will not know more until the inquest.

Sundial


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

The A31 and A35 trunk routes through Dorset are among the most dangerous roads in the UK. I live about a mile from this accident site and the stretch of the A31 from Wimborne to Bere Regis is notorious and there have been a number of fatalities this year. There have been calls for a right turn lane into the service station for years to stop tail end crashes and other improvements to the road.
Fatalities in road collisions have been steadily increasing year by year in Dorset and are now back to the levels of the early years of the last decade.
I will post a report of the Coroners Inquest when it is held and in the meantime not make any guesses to the cause of the collision.


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## DBSS (Jun 30, 2013)

So sad to see the utter devastation and even more so with the loss of life. Am sure it makes everyone of us who enjoy this amazing lifestyle realise just how fate can take an awful hand at times.

RIP to driver and good luck to his better half in her recovery.


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

I Policed that length of road for many years. It is owned and operated by the Highways Agency, NOT the County Council. The HA have total and utter control over everything to do with it, the County Council are not allowed to do ANYTHING (not even pick up litter) 

My observations are as follows.

Council truck was clearly on the correct side of the road.

The damage to both vehicle is totally consitant with a direct head on impact (over cab of MH shows impact from truck cab to be dead centre and even across the whole width) i.e neither vehicle is turning, that would give a different pattern to the damage concentrated on one side or other of the front of the vehicles involved.

Damage is consitent with a lot more speed that one of the vehicle only doing a few MPH such as turning (council truck will have a governor fitted) 

Having carried out the Forensic Reconstruction of similar collisions over many years thats my asessment of what the photgraphs show.

HOWEVER, it is important to keep a very open mind. The collision reconstruction WILL find out what happened (and possibly why) and all of that information will be presented to the Coroner at the inquest. Until then it would be very wrong to speculate on the actual cause. there are so many posibilities. 

No road itself is dangerous, its an inanimate object. Its the USERS who sometimes do something wrong/or something totally out of anyones control takes over (unexpected medical incident??) 

Many thousands of vehicles use that length of road on a daily basis without incident. 

Already the knee jerk reaction locally has been "the speed limit needs to be reduced" why?? tens of thousands of vehicles have used it without any problem, so there isnt that much wrong with it there??

ALL deaths are very sad and my thoughts are with the families of EVERYONE involved. How would you feel if you were the truck driver ???

So PLEASE everyone lets not speculate any further into what the CAUSE of this tragic event are until ALL of the facts become public knowledge. Without that information it would be very easy to WRONG !! and thats unfair on everyone who was involved.

Andy


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## cairnnut (Oct 23, 2009)

Just reading through the comments on the newspaper article and came across this one . Its something we all dread happening so sorry for all involved, John

chantalsteel93 wrote:
My name is Chantal Steel, I'm 20 years old and I'm the girl from the cafe named in the paper. I saw it happen, and myself and my co worker were the ones who redirected the traffic and blocked the road. It had nothing to do with speed. They were both travelling under the speed limit. The camper van started to veer onto the other side of the road way before the esso turning and did not have his indictor on or reduce his speed, which sadly indicates that he may have passed out/had a heart attack or somthing to cause the crash. It was nobodys fault. You cannot predict this sort of thing. So know the facts before you start pointing the blame!


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

Thanks for posting the above from the young lady who helped at the scene. 

Her comments clearly point to the reason for the crash and should hopefully stop any further ill informed speculation (not I hasten to add on this forum, but in the local press)


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

The inquest has now been held and the local paper report says that the driver died moments prior to the collision. http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...ments_before_A31_head_on_crash__inquest_told/


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

Thanks for posting that Ray, very sad.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

Incredible to read that the deceased wife's made a full recovery when you see the mess that the front of the van is in. Credit to modern vehicle design I imagine.


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## daffodil (Aug 7, 2014)

After seeing that photo of the camper, I notice the airbags had deployed which probably saved her 

On an Inspection of my daffodil a 2001 Fiat Ducato cab 

I have NO AIRBAGs at all ,

Amazing how vunerable you start to feel, especially considering when I started driving there were no laws regarding seat belts, and I used to ton it up (well the speedo said it was) on my bikes without a helmet and without a second thought 

Getting older and starting to feel mortality maybe

Anyway I digress My thoughts go to the wife and to the poor lorry driver 

as a PS was the driver of the van a member on here by any chance as he seemed to be very experianced


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

daffodil said:


> as a PS was the driver of the van a member on here by any chance as he seemed to be very experianced


not as far as anyone knew at the time


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

peribro said:


> Incredible to read that the deceased wife's made a full recovery when you see the mess that the front of the van is in. Credit to modern vehicle design I imagine.


Peter

And maybe modern medicine also.

Thankfully his Wife survived.

I am not sure if it is any comfort to her, but it sounds like he could have died at any time. Thankfully the crew of the other vehicle survived - since they were not at fault.

Geoff


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## Bob44again (Aug 27, 2014)

rayc said:


> The inquest has now been held and the local paper report says that the driver died moments prior to the collision. http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...ments_before_A31_head_on_crash__inquest_told/


Similar Inquest reporting from the Portsmouth Area newspaper:

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/tributes-paid-to-man-who-died-in-motorhome-crash-1-6540759


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

No one wasn't fault Geoff

Just a freak of life

Please God she continues her life

It's what we have to do

But my thoughts are with her as she continues her journey

We are here to live

Whatever happens

Aldra


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## rosalan (Aug 24, 2009)

My heart goes out to the wife who must have had a very bad time since the accident. 
As an additional consideration, as the passenger survived such an awful crash which must be due in part to the design of the vehicle. Did it say anywhere what make of van it was.

Alan


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

> rosalan said:
> 
> 
> > My heart goes out to the wife who must have had a very bad time since the accident.
> ...


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## rosalan (Aug 24, 2009)

As very many of us drive Fiats, the safety crumple zone, airbags and design of the vehicle in this awful accident are amazing. The fact that the wife survived and under different circumstances, perhaps the driver too could have lived due to the base vehicles design.

Alan


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

aldra said:


> No one wasn't fault Geoff
> 
> Aldra


Sandra

All I said was that I was pleased for the crew of the other vehicle since they were not at fault - it did not imply anybody was at fault, and the inquest found that the MH driver was probably dead before the crash, so could not be to blame.

Geoff


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## chasper (Apr 20, 2008)

rosalan said:


> As very many of us drive Fiats, the safety crumple zone, airbags and design of the vehicle in this awful accident are amazing.
> Alan


I wonder if the testing is done on the original cab, or after they remove the cab roof, which must reduce the strength of the unit?


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## 747 (Oct 2, 2009)

They are no longer referred to as Road Traffic Accidents.

Just Road Traffic Collisions.


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