Jacqueline Françoise VALVONA · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 3rd September 2018 I commenced an investigation into the death of Jacqueline Françoise VALVONA, aged 90. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 14th December 2018. The conclusion of the inquest was “Road Traffic Collision”.
The medical cause of death was found to be:
1a Multiple Traumatic Injuries
1b
1c
II

1) Jacqueline Françoise VALVONA was born on 10th April 1928 in Paris, France. At the time of her death she was 90 years old. She was a retired French teacher. She resided at Homebray House, retirement accommodation, which is situated midway up the hill in the village of Wootton.

2) Mrs VALVONA was an active 90-year old who endeavoured to go out at least once a day – often for a meal at the Sloop Inn, or into Newport. Although she had been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia, she was still able to go out and about on her own, although there was some evidence that she had suffered periods of confusion whilst out previously.

3) Up until the last few years, Mrs VALVONA had walked back up the steep hill to Homebray House after visiting the Sloop Inn, but latterly she had found it to be too difficult to manage, and so she had caught the bus back up the hill from the bus-stop opposite the Sloop Inn.

4) At approximately 16.23 hours on Thursday 2nd August 2018, ████████ was driving his ████████ X1 vehicle, registration number ████████ along the A3054 Wootton High Street in an easterly direction towards Kite Hill. He was driving within the speed limit of 30mph. The weather conditions were dry, warm and sunny. An elderly lady (Mrs VALVONA) was walking along the nearside pavement outside the Sloop Inn, she had her back towards the traffic travelling in the same direction as she was walking. Several drivers of vehicles travelling in the opposite direction had sensed that she might have been about to step out into the road to reach the bus-stop on the other side, possibly as they had seen her looking in that direction a moment earlier. The sun was coming from the south-west. Due to her eyesight issues, Mrs VALVONA found bright conditions to be dazzling and tended to wear a wide-brimmed hat, as she had been on that day, to reduce the glare. It is possible that Mrs VALVONA had indicated her intention to cross the road before Mr Hinch’s vehicle was close enough for him to see her.

5) Mrs VALVONA stepped out into the road without looking to her right before she did so. This placed her right in the pathway of Mr Hinch’s vehicle. He was unable to avoid her. He braked hard before the impact but she struck his vehicle and was thrown up onto the bonnet before landing in the road.

6) Mrs VALVONA suffered multiple serious traumatic injuries. One of the drivers travelling in the opposite direction to Mr Hinch witnessed the whole collision. She was an off-duty paramedic. Immediately she went to Mrs VALVONA’s aid. An Air Ambulance was requested due to the severity of Mrs VALVONA’s injuries and she was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital where she was admitted to the General Intensive Care Unit.

7) After assessing her, the Clinicians caring for Mrs VALVONA were of the opinion that the most appropriate treatment for her was palliative care as there was a poor prognosis and an almost inevitable risk of death from the multiple traumatic injuries that she had sustained, although she did have some surgical treatment to reduce the risk of infection in the open fracture in her leg. Mrs VALVONA’s family were in agreement with this approach.

8) Mrs VALVONA died at Southampton General Hospital at 13.50 hours on 20th August 2018.

1. I have concerns about the lack of a safe place for pedestrians to cross the A3054 at that point. There are a great many elderly people who visit the Sloop Inn due to the affordability of the roast meals there, and I heard evidence that there are over 40 elderly people living in Homebray House which is a short distance up the steep hill that is Wootton High Street many of whom enjoy visiting this pub/restaurant.

2. The A3054 is a busy single-lane carriageway road with one lane in each direction taking much traffic from the ferry terminal at Fishbourne to Newport, the County town, and beyond. It is the main link between Newport in the west and Ryde on the east of the island and this stretch of road is predominantly residential in nature. Whilst there is a crossing higher up the hill on Wootton High Road, if pedestrians have mobility issues – as Mrs VALVONA did - they are unable to walk up the steep 4° hill incline to reach the crossing.

3. There have been 7 slight injury accident in the vicinity in the 5 years leading up to 31.12.2017, and I heard evidence that there is a local pressure group which has been campaigning for a crossing of some sort to be installed to make this popular site for traversing the road to be safer. I also heard that there have been a large number of near-miss incidents which don’t feature in the statistics. There is an increased tendency for pedestrians to want to cross the road at this point as there is a bus-stop opposite the Sloop Inn which stops further up the hill, in the middle of Wootton High Street, and thereby means that those with mobility issues don’t have to negotiate the hill on foot.

4. Whilst the road is almost too narrow at that point to accommodate the inclusion of a traffic island (bearing in mind the number of HGVs that traverse that stretch of road), Senior Investigating Officer Police ████████ said in evidence that he would support the proposition that either a pelican or zebra crossing be installed at this point to prevent future deaths as it would mean that the traffic has to stop to allow pedestrians to get across safely.