Former Leigh teacher, 24, died in head-on crash (From Echo)

Former Leigh teacher, 24, died in head-on crash

11:30am Friday 29th January 2010

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A TALENTED teacher was killed by a drunk-driver who ignored advice not to get behind the wheel.

Sarah Lee, 24, of Bergholt Road, Colchester, died when an Audi hit her her Ford Focus.

An inquest at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court recorded a verdict of unlawful killing. The hearing was told self-employed plant operator Matthew Anderson, 24, of Holbrook, Suffolk, who also died in the crash, was two-and-a-half times the legal limit when his Audi smashed into Miss Lee’s car in Manningtree Road, near Stutton.

Miss Lee had been an art teacher at the Royal Hospital School, Suffolk, for three months. She had previously taught at the Eastwood School in Eastwood, Westcliff High school for Girls in Westcliff, and St Christopher’s school in Leigh, as a trainee.

Miss Lee was returning home from the Royal Holbrook School on December 5, last year, when Anderson’s car rounded the corner at 60 to 80 miles an hour and crossed into her path. Her partner Richard Day, 24, a passenger in Miss Lee’s car, said: “The car was travelling unbelievably fast – a speed no-one should have been doing, a speed that would have been impossible for any control. It was wobbling all over the place. Sarah made a comment, but I don’t think she had any time to brake or swerve.”

The inquest heard Anderson went to the Bull pub, in Brantham, at about noon and was drunk. The landlord told him to leave. On a scale of one to ten in terms of drunkeness, a friend said he was “near ten”. Mr Anderson refused a lift home and got in his Audi.

PC Kevin Stark, a crash investigator, said had Anderson survived, the Crown Prosecution Service would have been requested to charge him over the incident.

Coroner Dr Peter Dean said: “There can be no reasonable doubt from the evidence I have heard his car was being driven in a manner which fell far below that of a careful and competent driver.”

At yesterday’s hearing, he recorded a verdict of unlawful killing for the death of Miss Lee and one of accidental death for Mr Anderson.

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