An engineer died as a result of a car crash after telling his friend he would ‘show him how depressed he was’, an inquest heard.
Paul Hart, 49, died at Royal Blackburn Hospital on February 24 from severe injuries sustained in a road traffic collision in Clayton-le-Moors on February 20.
Burnley Coroners Court heard that Mr Hart was two and a half times over the legal alcohol limit when he drove at 80 miles an hour along Grange Street before colliding with a mini roundabout.
But a coroner ruled that could not be sure that Mr Hart intended to kill himself and recorded that he had died as a result of a motor collision.
The inquest heard that his friend David Hargreaves - who Mr Hart had known since he was 17 - was a passenger in the car and also sustained serious injuries.
He said on the evening of the collision Mr Hart seemed uncharacteristically ‘upset’.
The inquest was told that Mr Hart, formerly of Clayton-le-Moors but more recently of Hapton, had recently separated from his wife of more than 20 years and was having financial difficulties.
Mr Hargreaves said: “He seemed upset, not moody, but very upset about something.”
The pair went to a nearby pub to have a ‘conversation’, but Mr Hargreaves said they discussed ‘everyday things’ and Mr Hart no longer seemed upset.
They then left intending to meet friends, and planned to park Mr Hart’s Fiat Stilo along the route.
Mr Hargreaves said: “We stopped the car to talk. I said to Paul ‘are you depressed?’ and he said ‘I’ll show you how depressed I am’.
“He took his seat belt off and said ‘I’ll drive’. And he didn’t say another word after that.”
The inquest heard that Mr Hart then drove down Grange Street at four times the restricted speed limit, at 80 miles per hour.
Mr Hargreaves said: “I said to Paul; ‘you have showed me how depressed you are’, I said ‘Paul we all go through a bit of this, you don’t want to kill me, you don’t want to kill yourself, you don’t want to kill both of us’.
“The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital and the policeman explaining that I’d been in a car crash and I still didn't remember the crash.”
Pathologist Dr Richard Prescott told the inquest a post-mortem examination and toxicology report found that Mr Hart had a ‘high level’ of alcohol in his blood.
He said the cause of death was diffuse cerebral hypoxia as a result of multiple injuries as a result of the road traffic collision.
Mr Hart’s wife Jeanette told the hearing that Mr Hart was known to drink to excess, but was ‘normal’ when he drank, and she was not aware of any signs of depression.
She said: “I spoke to him on the Monday before, he seemed upset. He asked if he could come home I said ‘no’. He said he could if he could stop drinking. He could always come home if he stops drinking.”
Friend Debrah Nickerson had been with Mr Hart on the night of the collision.
She described his driving as often “erratic” but said she had no reason to believe the collision was anything other than ‘an accident gone wrong’. She said: “He was a fun-loving guy, to me there is no reason why he would have led to this.”
The inquest heard that the impact speed was between 25 to 30 miles per hour and there was no evidence of the driver breaking or attempting to take avoiding action or deficiencies with the road surface.
Coroner Michael Singleton said: “It would be in my view open to claim in acting in the way that he did Mr Hart intended to bring about the outcome that actually occurred.
“I recognise that it is possible for people to act impulsively, recklessly and dangerously putting their life at risk.”
However he concluded: “It seems to me that I could not be satisfied so as to be sure that Mr Hart intended to bring about his own demise and consequently the conclusion that I reached is in respect to a road traffic collision.”
