John Spurling inquest: Australian tourist was crushed by a lorry at Yorkshire Dales beauty spot after driver followed satnav down unsuitable route

John Arthur Spurling, 74, was on a dream trip to the UK in March 2020 when he decided to stop off at Aysgarth Falls while travelling between Whitby and Hawes in a hire car.

The Australian Navy veteran, a widower who left two daughters, was struck by the trailer of a Mercedes LGV whose driver had not seen him on the approach to the bridge over the River Ure, and died at the scene from chest injuries.

The inquest heard that driver Jack Warburton, now 30 and from Crewe, had ended up on the C118 through Aysgarth to avoid a weight restriction on a road near Askrigg on his journey between Gateshead and the Arla dairy at Settle, where he had been sent to complete a trailer swap.

The C118 was signposted as unsuitable for HGVs but they were not prohibited, and Mr Warburton was recorded on his cab’s dashcam saying ‘I am not turning back now’ as he approached sharp bends and a steep incline.

Although he was charged with causing Mr Spurling’s death, his trial at York Crown Court was abandoned and he was discharged when the CPS offered no evidence against him.

The dashcam recorded Mr Warburton stopping the lorry just before a disused railway bridge, and he spent nine minutes out of the cab ‘assessing’ a steep hill on the other side before he decided to proceed. Two witnesses were both convinced he would ‘never make it’ over the Falls bridge.

Mr Spurling was standing on the north-eastern corner of the bridge, and a police reconstruction established that he would have been mostly obscured by the parapet and vegetation. The lorry’s dashcam captured his head in footage, but he was only briefly visible before he was trapped and would have had only around six seconds to react to the approaching vehicle.

Mr Warburton tested negative for alcohol and drugs at the scene and Mr Spurling also had no substances in his system.

The reconstruction established that an LGV could pass over the bridge without making contact with the parapet, but that this was a ‘challenging’ manoeuvre requiring regular mirror checks.

Mr Warburton gave evidence to the inquest, and said he used his own HGV-specific satnav which programmed suitable routes for him. Although his company’s head office had recommended he drive to Settle via the A61, A59 and A65, he instead followed the route suggested by the device through Catterick, Redmire and Carperby. He had never driven along the C118 before. He did not see any pedestrian or vehicle on the bridge and decided it was safe to begin his turn, and made an emergency stop when a shout alerted him to the collision.

North Yorkshire Police forensic collision investigator PC Paul Harris said that tyre marks indicated the trailer had skewed sideways during the 100-degree left-hand turn onto the bridge, but there were no defects found when the lorry was examined. As the warning signs were only advisory, Mr Warburton had not contravened any laws by continuing along the road. His speed during the manoeuvre was 6mph.

A report also found that a shadow cast by the trailer would have given the driver ‘little information’ about Mr Spurling’s presence and reduced the likelihood of him being seen. Police also concluded that Mr Warburton could have been experiencing ‘cognitive overload’ because of the difficulty of the manoeuvre and the need to complete it in time for other traffic to cross the bridge.

It also suggested that Mr Spurling may not have heard the lorry because of the noise of the Falls – which were in spate at the time – and because he was looking through his camera.

Assistant coroner for North Yorkshire Jonathan Leach said he ‘could not say why Mr Warburton did not see John Spurling’ and added there was no evidence the driver had been distracted in any way, He recorded a conclusion of death in a road traffic collision.