A coroner has said it will ‘likely never be known’ why a Weston couple died when their classic car crashed in France.
Dr Gordon Mills (67) and his wife Helen (65) were driving on the A79 motorway toward their holiday home near Mont Blanc when their Jaguar Ronart hit the central reservation on September 16 last year.
An inquest held in Lincoln last month was told that there were no other vehicles involved in the incident at Diou.
An eye witness told investigators there was ‘no reason’ for the car losing control, it was going 20km below the speed limit and no evidence of alcohol or drugs in Mr Mills’ system.
The hearing was told that prior to the collision the pair stopped at a services having already driven 350km.
Coroner Jane Wilkes ruled the death was due to a road traffic collision and said the couple would likely have died instantaneously based on the injuries they suffered.
“There’s a number of options as to what happened,” she said to family members present. “It could have been momentary intention, it could have been fatigue or a potential medical event, though there was nothing picked up on the post-mortem.
“It is one of the questions we will likely not have an answer to.
“Losing a parent at any time is always incredibly difficult, but I can’t imagine what it’s like in these circumstances.”
A statement from Dr Mills’ family said he’d been a keen sportsman who was born in Long Sutton.
“Gordon was a kind and caring man with strong sense of duty,” it continued. “He was a businessman and didn’t suffer fools but, if anyone came to him with a problem, he would go out of his way to help and do the absolute best for them.”
