Last updated 10:10, Tuesday, 02 December 2008

A WHITEHAVEN man had consumed a cocktail of drink and drugs when he crashed his car into another vehicle, killing all four of the occupants, an inquest has heard.

Four members of the same West Cumbrian family - mother and daughter Patricia and Kathryn Graham, Patricia’s sister Mary Kennedy, and Kathryn’s cousin Claire Edwards - died after their Ford Fiesta was struck head-on by a Vauxhall Astra being driven at high speed by Andrew Pattinson on the A595 at Moota.

Mr Pattinson, who also died in the crash, had been drinking alcohol all afternoon in pubs in Whitehaven and Workington before he took to the road on April 12, the inquest heard. A post-mortem found him to be almost three-and-a-half times over the legal drink drive limit, and an amount of cocaine was also found in his system.

At an inquest into the tragedy held yesterday (Thursday), deputy coroner for North and West Cumbria, David Roberts, ruled that the four women had been killed unlawfully.

“This was an intentional act of unlawful and dangerous driving,” said Mr Roberts, of Mr Pattinson, a 23-year-old father-of-one from Jericho Road, Whitehaven. “It was a deliberately reckless piece of driving from a man who had been drinking all afternoon and had taken drugs. “Furthermore, the speed at which he was driving was such that he couldn’t control the car safely which meant that the risk of death was high.”

He also concluded that Mr Pattinson died as a result of an accident.

The women had been to Newcastle on the day of the tragedy to see a matinee performance of Dancing On Ice, a Mother’s Day present from Miss Graham to Mrs Graham.  They were on their way home to Whitehaven, having dropped off a fifth member of the group, Hazel Bowmaker, at Carlisle, when the accident happened.

Mr Pattinson, a rugby player with the Hensingham club, had been celebrating a birthday with friends in a number of pubs. Witnesses told the inquest that he suddenly left the group, around 7pm, without saying where he was going.  At just after 8pm near to the Plumbland junction on the A595 at Moota, the inquest heard that Mr Pattinson’s Astra clipped the back of another car which caused it to veer into the wrong side of the road and collide head-on with the Ford Fiesta, being driven by Miss Graham, 22.

Mr Pattinson’s car burst into flames, while the front of the Fiesta was very heavily damaged. Miss Graham, of Penzance Street, Moor Row, and the two back seat passengers, Mrs Graham, 52, of Trumpet Road, Cleator, and Miss Kennedy, 53, of Crossings Close, Cleator Moor, as well as Mr Pattinson who was driving alone, all died at the scene. The front seat passenger, Miss Edwards, 21, of Westcroft Terrace, Lowca, who has a three-year-old daughter, died of her injuries four days later in Newcastle General Hospital.

“It is with a heavy heart that this court is reminded again that alcohol, drugs and driving do not mix,” concluded Mr Roberts.  “I hope people read this report and will learn the appropriate lessons. Our heart-felt sympathy goes to the Graham, Kennedy, Edwards and Pattinson families.”

See next week's Whitehaven News for a full report.