Shropshire Star

A5 death crash driver had health problems, inquest told

A man who drove a car into a stationary lorry parked in a layby on the A5 north of Oswestry had serious physical health problems, an inquest into his death has heard.

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Garat Hannan

Garat Anthony Hannan, 32, from Wrexham, told health workers days before his death that he was in severe pain and had thought about taking his life.

Assistant coroner, Joanne Lees said at the inquest in Shrewsbury on Thursday that Wrexham social services team should have acted on that information.

The tragedy happened in a layby near the Bridleway Caravan Park, Gobowen, in the early hours of March 20 last year.

The assistant coroner said evidence showed that Mr Hannan’s Vauxhall, which had been travelling towards Wrexham, had collided with the back of the lorry trailer. The lorry had been parked up in the layby.

Mr Hannan died at the scene from multiple injuries. The inquest heard that days before he died he was referred to Wrexham’s adult social care department after worries about his physical disabilities.

An occupational therapist who talked to him became concerned when Mr Hannan mentioned that he had thought about taking his life.

In the days before he died Mr Hannan told friends that he was in severe pain and that he had not had his pain killers because of a mix up with his prescription.

Mrs Lees said that social services should have acted when he told them about his thoughts but said it would never be known what if any difference that would have made.

She recorded a verdict of suicide.

Speaking to the inquest his mother, Fiona Williams, thanked the emergency services who went to the scene of the collision and the passers by who tried to help.

She said: “To the poor lorry driver, I hope that you are OK and I think of you often.”

“Sadly approximately 16 people take their own life every day in the UK but Garat wasn’t a number, he was my son.”

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