A lorry driving instructor died when one of his students got her foot stuck under the brake pedal, while he was teaching her how to perform an emergency stop, and crushed him between two lorries.
Alan Underwood, aged 48, of Far Cotton, Northampton, was teaching two students emergency stops at Crick Truckstop car park, just off the A5, when the accident happened on 17 March 2008.
The learner driver behind the wheel of the lorry, Corrine Radburn, of Carlton Road, Bilton was instructed by Mr Underwood to apply the brake when approaching a line marked out by two cones. The cones were approximately 15 metres away from another parked lorry. Mr Underwood then stood between the cones and the parked lorry as Mrs Radburn drove towards him. Tragedy followed as Mrs Radburn’s foot got stuck when trying to apply the brakes and she drove into him with the 18-ton Iveco Eurocargo lorry, crushing him against the lorry behind.
Mr Underwood was rushed to the University Hospital in Coventry by Air Ambulance but died of multiple injuries after a few hours. He sadly left behind four children and seven grandchildren.
His widow Dawn told the inquest she did not blame the learner driver and did not want her to be prosecuted. In a moving statement read to the court by coroner Anne Pember, Mrs Underwood said: “I don’t hold the lady driver responsible. I cannot imagine what she is going through. I wouldn’t like to see her prosecuted. I just want to know why my Alan did what he did.” She added: “Alan was a family man. He loved to spend time with his family. He will be greatly missed by everyone. He was my rock and I loved him very much.”
Learner Mrs Radburn had told the inquest that she did not feel happy about performing the emergency stop and that she had expressed this to Mr Underwood. She told the inquest: “The situation made me feel uncomfortable. It’s quite a stressful exercise for someone to say ‘stop now’, but when someone says ‘stop now’ and there’s an obstacle, it becomes a completely different exercise. I told Alan ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this’.”
The inquest heard how witness to the accident, Mr Winterlich, from Rugby, confirmed to investigators that he did not see Mrs Radburn’s brake lights go on.
A spokesman for Mr Underwood’s employer, Qualitas LGV Training, said after the inquest that he had been following standard procedure during the emergency stop exercise. He said: “It was a very tragic accident and a terrible, terrible day. It was a big shock to everybody. Alan was such a lovely, lovely fellow. He is sorely missed.” A pathologists report said Mr Underwood died of multiple injuries, and a verdict of accidental death was recorded.