Margaret Olive PINE (Mrs Pine) · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 23rd December 2016 I commenced an investigation into the death of Margaret Olive PINE (Mrs Pine), D.O.B. 5th July 1925, age 91. The investigation concluded on 24th August 2017. The conclusion of the inquest was that Mrs Pine died from the injuries she received as a result of a road traffic collision.

On the 17th December 2016 Mrs Pine was the front seat passenger in a car driven by her friend ████████ with another friend ████████ in the rear of the car. All three ladies had been out for the evening to play bingo. They were returning from Westwood House near Ottery, North Devon, to their homes in Barnstaple at approximately 9.30pm. The weather conditions were poor, it was raining, very misty and foggy. The driver of the car, ████████ turned left at the Roundswall roundabout off the A39 with the intention of heading towards the Cedars roundabout between Sticklepath and Bickington near Barnstaple. This route would have taken her across two further roundabouts before turning right at the Cedars roundabout. In the fog, ████████ became disoriented and made one wrong turn. Once she found her way back to the road linking the Roundswell roundabout with the Cedars roundabout she then proceeded but instead of turning right at the Cedars roundabout she turned right at the roundabout immediately before the Cedars roundabout. Continuing down this road without turning left into a residential development the road is closed off by a wall with which ████████ collided. Next to the wall is a cycle path and a footpath but that is not wide enough for a car to travel down. The police that attended the scene described the visibility as very poor and that they were almost adjacent to the ████████ car when they found her vehicle. During the course of the Inquest it was identified that the entrance to this road from the roundabout does not have any sign advising drivers that this is a dead end, nor indeed does the wall blocking off the road have any form of warning reflective strips to identify this being a no through road.

To avoid the potential for a similar incident in the future I would ask Devon Highways to consider the erection of signs at the start of the aforementioned road advising drivers that this was a no through road and at the end of the road which is closed off with a wall, affixing to that wall some form of reflective signage warning drivers they have reached the end of the road.