The deaths of two Skipton girls whose car crashed into the canal outside the town were probably due to driver inexperience, a coroner has said.
Geoff Fell, coroner for North Yorkshire, told an inquest yesterday that Sarah Woolmer, 19, of Wensleydale Avenue, and 18-year-old Larissa Moore, of Jubilee Close, drowned when the green Peugeot 206 Sarah was driving went through railings near Niffany Bridge, on Broughton Road, and sank onto its roof in the Leeds-Liverpool canal.
The inquest heard from a number of statements detailing the movements of the two on the night of April 7.
Friend Christopher Chew had seen Sarah, a former Skipton Girls’ High School student, and Larissa, a former student at Aireville School, in the Black Horse pub in Skipton High Street. The girls had a man with them, known as Joey, whom they were taking back home to Silsden. They left at about 8.15pm and Mr Chew next saw the girls again in the Red Lion pub, also in the High Street, at 9.15pm. At around 9.45pm the two girls left to go for a drive and that was the last time he saw them.
In a statement, Sarah’s mother Gaynor Harrison said Sarah had passed her driving test in February. She had gone out at around 7.20pm promising to be home by 10pm.
“At about 10.10pm she had not returned and had not sent a text message to say she was running late. She always let me know if she was going to be delayed,” said Mrs Harrison.
She reported her missing to the police at 12.45am and went to the police station again at 1.45am.
Skipton PC Andrew Ingram said he had travelled along Broughton Road several times that evening and first noticed the railings had been damaged near the canal at 9.45pm as he was heading into work.
It was not until eight hours later that passer-by Simon Penman saw the car in the canal at 5.55am and drove to the police station to report it.
By the time the police arrived, Sarah’s stepfather Richard Harrison, who had been driving around trying to find the girls, was already in the water.
“Mr Harrison had managed to get the door open, but was unable to see anyone inside the car. The police asked him to get out of the canal because of the cold. A fire officer also at the scene was unable to stand the cold more than a few seconds so the Cave Rescue Organisation was called and recovered the girls’ bodies,” said Mr Fell.
PC Paul Davenport’s statement said tests found the car to be in good mechanical order, but the rear offside tyre was under-inflated by 34 per cent.
He said it appeared Sarah lost control on the corner and probably over-steered, crashing through the railings into the water. There were no brake marks on the road and he said it was likely she was travelling too fast for the corner, though not necessarily over the speed limit. “Possibly the vehicle started to over-steer and regaining control is difficult because it requires a lot of practise. Losing control would have been down to her driving inexperience,” he said.
He said the vehicle was found nose down and upside-down in the water and the girls were in the back of the car.
Toxicology reports revealed the girls had no alcohol or drugs in their system.
Mr Fell said the girls probably moved into the back as the front of the car was filling with water, although this meant they were moving further away from their only means of exit, the front doors. He said the water was cold that night, just above freezing, and it would have been a matter of seconds before they hyperventilated and became unconscious.
“I doubt anyone would have been able to rescue them as it was just too cold, even if they had arrived at the scene just seconds afterwards,” he said.
Mr Fell recorded an accident verdict on both girls.
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