Horse rider died after being thrown under truck’s wheels (From Bucks Free Press)

Horse rider died after being thrown under truck’s wheels

7:00am Saturday 23rd December 2006 in News By Paul Leat

A TEENAGE horse rider looked on in horror as her mother was thrown from her startled horse under the back wheels of a passing sewage truck, an inquest heard.

Clare Clarke, 33, pictured, from Youens Drive, Thame, was killed after suffering head and chest injuries from the 11-and-a-half tonne tanker as her 13-year-old daughter looked on.

Kourtney Clarke had been riding with her mother at around 5.15pm on Sunday, August 27 in Haddenham Road between Haddenham and Kingsey when they saw a lorry coming from the opposite direction.

Miss Clarke told the inquest at Amersham Magistrates Court on Wednesday that her mother's horse Henry had reared up after hearing a loud bang which caused her to fall off.

PC Stephen Moffat carried out two test runs in the sewage truck and discovered that the bang was probably caused by the vehicle mounting a curb and drain on the opposite side of the road to the horses and then slipping off.

Miss Clarke claimed her mother had tried to wave to Mr Parton to slow him down. She said: "My mum had her hand up and said Oh my God, he's not going to stop.' The horse jumped forwards and backwards and my mum lost her balance and the lorry run her over. I thought it was going too fast towards a horse."

But Neil Parton, the tanker driver, said he had slowed down to pass the two horses. He said: "I saw the horses and you go into tick over mode. It is an automatic reaction. I turned off the radio as I always do and went down through the gears from fourth, to second and then first."

Brian Howlan, a colleague of Mr Parton who was following in a truck behind him, said Mr Parton had been travelling at a "walking pace" as he passed the horses. He said the tanker was almost past both horses when Mrs Clarke's horse reared up and threw her to the ground by the back tyres.

PC Moffat estimated that the tanker could not have been travelling more than 10mph as it passed the horses, judging by the distance from the drain to the scene of the accident.

He said: "If the noise happened at the drain nearest the site then the lorry must have covered about eight metres in two seconds - about 9mph. The lorry had stopped a short distance past the point of impact so it couldn't have been travelling at high speed."

Richard Hulett, Buckingham-shire coroner, said: "The evidence suggests there was a bang immediately prior to the collision. We will never know but I think it is a very large possibility that that was the noise that prompted the horse to become distressed.

"I think the evidence is consistent with her being run over by some rear part of the vehicle."

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.