Verdict on Stafford student's death

An accidental death verdict has been returned following an inquest on an 18-year-old Stafford woman who died when the driver of the car she was in lost control and hit a tree.

Jessica Martin, of Woodlands Road, Stafford, would have died almost instantly after suffering a fractured skull in the crash on the A51 between Blackbrook and Stableford at about 10pm on Wednesday, March 19.

Miss Martin, a travel and tourism student at Stafford College who had been offered modelling work, was pronounced dead at the scene. A post mortem revealed the cause of her death was brain swelling due to a fractured skull.

Hartshill Coroners Court was told that Miss Martin and her best friend Isobel McCartney had been 10-pin bowling in Stafford that night and were picked up by Miss McCartney's friend, Simon Taylor, aged 30, who lived in Hednesford.

They drove to the Shell Garage at Walton Island, where they had arranged to meet Robert Appleton, a friend of Mr Taylor.

After chatting at the petrol station for 15 minutes, the group decided to go for a drive and Miss Martin got into the front passenger seat of Mr Appleton's Ford Mondeo.

Miss McCartney remained in Mr Taylor's Subaru Impreza, along with his two-year-old daughter, who was in a baby chair on the back seat.

The two cars set off along the A34 and headed on to the A51, with Mr Appleton's Mondeo leading for most of the way. But when Mr Appleton, who lives in Stone, approached a sweeping right-hand bend about 10 miles into the journey, he clipped the kerb and lost control of his car.

As the Mondeo's left rear wheel hit the kerb, the car slid across the road before mounting the kerb on the other side of the road and hitting a tree. The car then bounced back into the road and flipped on to its roof and was clipped by Mr Taylor's Subaru as he drove past.

Mr Appleton, who was driving the Mondeo, suffered serious head injuries and spent three weeks in hospital, six days of which were in a coma. An examination of his vehicle found nothing which could have caused him to lose control of his car.