A difficult question?

[Cunobelin]

This is a "hot local story", but raises a few difficult questions.

Parents' anger at 'gutless' duo in death crash


The parents of a young woman killed in a car crash have branded the two men she was travelling with 'gutless' after they blamed each other for driving.
Christina Cornwell, then 19, was thrown through the front passenger window of a car when the driver lost control and crashed it into a tree and lamppost in the early hours in March last year.

Christina suffered devastating head injuries, slipped into a coma and died a month later aged 20. Her companions Antony Mudkins and Matthew Middleton, both aged 20 at the time of the crash, told police the other was driving the car.

After a coroner at Portsmouth Magistrates Court recorded an open verdict into Christina's death, her parents Malcolm and Tracey Cornwell spoke of their anger.

Mrs Cornwell, 45, said: 'What sort of men are they? Whichever one was driving should own up to what he has done and face the consequences. They are gutless, not owning up to what happened.'

Mr Cornwell, 40, said: 'They don't have a conscience, I don't understand how they can be so gutless – look what they have done to our family.'

Both men were originally arrested on suspicion of causing GBH and later on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

But despite an extensive police investigation neither Mr Mudkins nor Mr Middleton has ever faced criminal charges because of a lack of evidence.

Both men admit driving the car at some point during the evening, but say the other was in the driver's seat when the car came off the road. Despite repeated appeals for information nobody has come forward to identify who the driver was, and forensic evidence does not confirm which man was driving the car at the time of the crash.

Mrs Cornwell, speaking at the family home in Paddock Way, Petersfield, said: 'Natalie, Christina's younger sister, was meant to go with them as well but didn't want to. Thank God she didn't.'

Speaking about his daughter, Mr Cornwell said: 'She was lovely, she would speak to anybody and loved going out and meeting people.

'We are angry and heartbroken – you just feel this sense of loss, of waiting for her to come home, waiting for her to text.

'She used to text all the time and we know she isn't going to text us again now.'


COUNTDOWN TO DISASTER

Christina Cornwell met Antony Mudkins only in the weeks leading up to the crash.

On the night of the crash she finished her shift at Tesco at around 9pm before meeting him and Matthew Middleton after the two men watched football on TV.

Later the three got into Mudkins's Renault Clio, which crashed into a tree and a lamppost in Harrier Way, Petersfield, at about 1.15am on March 27, 2008.

The Clio flipped onto its side and Christina was thrown through the front seat passenger window. She wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

The inquest heard Mr Middleton and Mr Mudkins pushed the car back onto its four wheels before emergency services arrived.

Police said the weather conditions were dry and the car must have been travelling faster than the 30mph speed limit.

> Mr Mudkins had a provisional driving licence while Mr Middleton had a full licence.

Christina's parents Tracey and Malcolm.

'This will always be hanging over our heads'

Christina Cornwell should have been celebrating her 20th birthday on April 8 last year.

But instead she lay in a coma in Southampton General Hospital.

After the crash on March 27 she was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham before being transferred to Southampton.

Gradually her family began to accept there was nothing the doctors would be able to do for her.

She was transferred back to QA, and it was there where parents Tracey and Malcolm Cornwell made the heartbreaking decision to switch off their daughter's life support machine.

Friends and family then visited the hospital to say their goodbyes before her parents brought Christina home at around 7.30pm on April 25 last year.

The family made up her bed in the living room and around 50 people came to say goodbye.

The next day Mr Cornwell was sitting by his daughter's bedside while Mrs Cornwell popped outside.

She said: 'He called me and he said she wasn't breathing properly. She took five little breaths and that was that.'

Mr Cornwell added: 'We are just still so angry at those boys and this will always be hanging over our heads until we know what actually happened.'

How do you dea with such a situation?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Imprison both of them for perjury?

[clarion]

Waterboarding 180 times?

[TimO]

Imprison both of them for perjury?

Erm, only one of them is lying, the one who was driving.  The other one is totally honestly stating that the other was driving.

[David Martin]

Imprison both of them for perjury?

Erm, only one of them is lying, the one who was driving.  The other one is totally honestly stating that the other was driving.

Imprison the one with the full license. He is either responsible because he was driving, or responsible because he was supervising a provisional license holder.

Job done.

Next.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Erm, only one of them is lying, the one who was driving.  The other one is totally honestly stating that the other was driving.

I know, but there must be a way to get both of them. Somehow.

[clarion]

No, David is spot on.  I'd missed that vital detail.

[rower40]

No, David is spot on.  I'd missed that vital detail.

Don't be so quick to put yourself down.  Waterboarding must be the answer - look how much the USAnian Gov't uses it. 

[clarion]

I think that waterboarding might be a good idea anyway with these scrotes.

[Wibble]

Shoot them and burn the bodies.

Job done.

Next! 

[Wendy]

Cut their nuts off.

[Jaded]

Later the three got into Mudkins's Renault Clio, which crashed into a tree and a lamppost in Harrier Way, Petersfield, at about 1.15am on March 27, 2008.

Imprison the car.

The media seem to think it was the car's fault.

[Regulator]

No, David is spot on.  I'd missed that vital detail.

Indeed.

But the other aspect of this story was that she wasn't wearing a seat belt.  What a pity the story doesn't also emphasise this aspect. Perhaps her parents could encourage others to wear seatbelts to prevent a similar tragedy...

[PhilO]

Later the three got into Mudkins's Renault Clio, which crashed into a tree and a lamppost in Harrier Way, Petersfield, at about 1.15am on March 27, 2008.

Imprison the car.

The media seem to think it was the car's fault.

I think that's a little unfair...    For once the report does assign the cause to the driver's actions:

Christina Cornwell, then 19, was thrown through the front passenger window of a car when the driver lost control and crashed it into a tree and lamppost in the early hours in March last year.

[FatBloke]

Forensics can be used to try and establish who the driver was. It was successful in this case.

[fuzzy]

Forensics can be used to try and establish who the driver was. It was successful in this case.

Forensics tried and failed to identify the driver at the time of the accident. Both admitted driving at some staget that night.

[DuncanM]

Can't they get DNA from the airbag?  That would prove which one was driving when it deployed (unless the other one rubbed his face in it, and I doubt that).
The article doesn't say whether the young woman who was killed had a driving license.  If she did, and the provisional holder was driving, then the full license holder would not have committed an offense.

[clarion]

It really doesn't matter; David Is Right.

[David Martin]

It really doesn't matter; David Is Right.

Nope DuncanM is right. The lady could have been the supervisor.
In which case she would be responsible for her own death. Either way the oen with the provisional license is not guilty.

..d

[ed_o_brain]

Don't you have to be at least 21 with 3 years driving experience to supervise a learner?
If I recall correctly, none of the occupants should have been supervising.