An inquest has heard that a 21-year-old student was crushed to death by her own car while unloading belongings on a sloped, icy driveway. Eleisha Skinner, an aspiring social worker and former beauty queen, had reverse parked her black Audi A1 outside her accommodation in High Wycombe, which had no barriers in place.
Details of the Incident
Ms Skinner had just returned from the Christmas break on January 4 and was unloading the car from the rear when the vehicle 'slipped'. She was pinned to a wall outside the accommodation. Another resident called emergency services after hearing a 'bang', a woman 'scream', and shouts of 'get off, get off' before finding Ms Skinner unconscious.
Police at the scene noted the 'sloped' driveway at the High Wycombe property was covered in ice after wintry weather, making it 'very slippery', senior coroner Crispin Butler said. Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court heard on Tuesday, June 23, that the driveway had not been salted or gritted.
Safety Concerns and Coroner's Report
Mr Butler said there was no barrier or railings in place to stop 'overrun'. He said he would write to the owners of the accommodation, Howarth Property, so it could set out what had been done to mitigate the safety of the driveway. The inquest heard Howarth Property had since installed railings. The firm wrote to the coroner that professional inspections of the property determined the driveway was assessed as safe, the inquest heard.
But Mr Butler issued a prevention of future deaths report to Howarth Property amid concerns an 'incident could arise where another individual could die'. The firm had 56 days to say what action had been taken.
Medical and Forensic Findings
Ms Skinner's car was in neutral, had 'no defects', and the handbrake was 'fully up' when she was hurt on January 4. She was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but died on January 8. A medical examination found she died from anoxic brain injury due to asphyxia compression, meaning pressure on her body prevented her from breathing properly.
Mr Butler wrote in his record of inquest: 'On balance, the incident appears to have occurred as a result of Eleisha’s vehicle slipping after having been parked with the handbrake on and dropping off the rear of the driveway, at a time when the boot was open and Eleisha was behind the car in the process of unloading. It was a very cold night with frost on frozen snow, which made the inclined drive very slippery. There were no railings or other barrier or obstacle to prevent a vehicle over-run from the drive, nor was there evidence that the driveway had been salted or gritted.'
Family Tributes and University Honor
Ms Skinner, who had been crowned Miss Faversham in 2022 and later Miss Congeniality, was described by her family in a statement as a 'kind, selfless and passionate young woman, who always put others before herself'. She was studying at Buckinghamshire New University at the time. Her family spoke of her 'fun, bubbly personality' which meant 'she was always the life and soul wherever she went'. They said that she was the 'kind of person who made the world brighter just by being in it'. Their statement added: 'We will carry her with us always, our beautiful Eleisha, forever loved, forever missed and never forgotten.'
Buckinghamshire New University said Ms Skinner, from Faversham, Kent, would be awarded a posthumous BSc with honours in social work, the inquest heard.
