Georgina Lauren Taylor · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On the 31st January 2014 I commenced an investigation into the death of Georgina Lauren Taylor whose death was reported to my office on the 27th January 2014. The cause of death following Postmortem Examination was that of a 1a) Multi-organ injury. I finalised the Inquest on the 25th June 2014 with a conclusion of ‘Road Traffic Collision’.

A combination of inexperience and excessive speed contributed to the driver losing control of a motor vehicle which was being driven in lane 2 of on the A627(M) whereupon the vehicle rotated anti-clockwise through 90 degrees as it crossed lane 1 and mounted the embankment to the nearside where the rear offside of the vehicle collided with a tree which impact resulted in the vehicle rolling up onto the tree and rotating clockwise through 180 Degrees before coming to rest.

1. The section of the A627(M) where this incident occurred forms the south bank carriageway of the motorway, approaching Junction 1 at Chadderton, Oldham. The A627(M) is a two lane, dual carriageway and is subject to motorway regulations including the national (70 miles per hour) speed restriction.

2. The introduction of the interim requirements for road restraint systems in 2002 identified that all trees with a girth exceeding 500mm (or several closely spaced trees) located within a distance of 4.5m from the paved carriageway require protection. The re-issued requirements in 2004 identified that trees above 300mm in girth should be protected by a suitable vehicle restraint system.

3. Current design standard TD19/06 includes a site specific risk process where topographical features, together with adjacent sources of risk are reviewed in order to identify the most appropriate restraint facility and containment levels and that in relation to the presence of trees adjacent to the nearside verge and protection requirements, it is unclear as to when these regimented and it is likely that they are all ‘self-seeded’ with the larger specimens being over 10 years old. Whilst the vehicle restraint systems in place comply with identified requirements at the time of the construction of the route, there are no current requirements to inspect soft estate as it develops in terms of assessing protection requirements. The application of more recent design standards would have required some of the trees at this location to be protected (as well as the lighting columns) or removed within the 4.5m threshold.

4. ████████ in evidence stated that ‘it might be prudent to remove some of the trees and that the issue of a Regulation 28 report would generate a review of the area in question’.