Man died in High Wycombe ‘hit and run’ as driver did not notice hitting him

Stephen Cooke died aged 56 on May 20, 2021, after he was hit by a car in Hughenden Avenue at around 10.30pm.

At an inquest at Beaconsfield Coroners’ Court today (Thursday), the court heard how witnesses heard an “almighty thud” upon the impact.

The driver, Yohanathan Kumarasamy, carried on in his car after the impact and told a friend that he thought he had hit a bin. He had hit Mr Cooke, who was lying flat in the road.

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Mr Kumarasamy handed himself in at a police station two days after the crash after hearing that a man had died.

An expert crash investigator found that the Vauxhall Astra was travelling no faster than 32mph when the impact took place, and that even if he had seen Mr Cooke lying in the road, the driver would not have been able to react in time to avoid the impact.

No criminal charges have been brought against Mr Kumarasamy.

Senior coroner for Buckinghamshire Crispin Butler ruled that Mr Cooke died from multiple traumatic injuries to the chest and abdomen as a result of a road traffic collision.

The court heard how on May 20, at around 10pm, a witness saw Mr Cooke lying on the ground on a patch of grass to the side of a nearby road.

When she went to ask him if he was ok, he told her he did not need help. Noticing that he was barely conscious, she called the police before driving home.

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A post-mortem toxicology report found that Mr Cooke had a high volume of alcohol in his blood. The coroner told the court that he was 4.5 times over the drink drive limit, and that the quantity of alcohol in his system could potentially have been fatal.

Mr Cooke died not long after he was seen lying on the grass, as the crash took place at around 10.30pm.

In a statement provided to police, Mr Kumarasamy described how he was driving home from work along Hughenden Avenue and that there was poor visibility due to the darkness.

He described how he thought he hit a bump in the road but assumed it was a bin so carried on driving.

The following day, friends told him that a man had died in a “hit and run” nearby. It was only then that Mr Kumarasamy realised that he had hit Mr Cooke. He handed himself in on May 22.

In a statement to police, Mr Kumarasamy said: “I didn’t for one minute think I had run over a person, otherwise I would have stopped.

“I have no reason to drive away, it’s something I would never do and have never done.”

Later in the inquest, the coroner read out from statements from witnesses who saw the aftermath of the crash.

Bus driver Craig Summers, who was leaving the nearby Carousel depot, described how he heard an “almighty thud” when the impact occurred, before running over to the scene of the accident.

He said: “He was a big guy and he looked in a bad way. There was no movement about him.

“I tried to do CPR and immediately felt his ribs were crushed. I did a couple of compressions, but it was clear to me he had passed.”

PC David Hannan, an expert road traffic collision investigator, attended the hearing in person to give evidence.

He concluded that there was no way that Mr Kumarasamy would have had time to avoid running over Mr Cooke as he was lying in the road, even if he had seen him there.

Bringing the hearing to a close, the coroner ruled that Mr Cooke died from “multiple traumatic chest and abdomen injuries” in a road traffic collision.

He said: “While lying prone in the highway, he’s overrun by a vehicle and the driver thought he had been a bin.

“The evidence indicates that the overrunning is unlikely to have been avoidable.

“Steven’s reasons for being on the highway are unknown and I don’t think we can imply any more than that he was extremely inebriated.

“It’s a very complex and sad situation, I suspect Steven knew almost nothing about what happened to him due to intoxication. He wouldn’t have appreciated the risk he was in or what happened.”