A gym manager died in a head-on crash after her car strayed into the wrong side of the road, while she ate KFC.
Anna Ledgar was on her way to work at Macclesfield Football Club, where she had recently been headhunted to become the club’s gym manager. She had drove her Seat Leon to a KFC drive-thru with a food order on the way to work.
An inquest heard that the 28-year-old, from Uttoxeter, then drove along the B5030 Ashbourne Road, between Uttoxeter and Rocester, shortly before 1pm on October 18. Her car then either drifted or swerved over the central white line and into the path of an oncoming Peugeot taxi.
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The taxi driver, who was seriously injured, recalled a ‘massive bang’. The next thing he remembered was seeing he was bleeding heavily and in pain, Stoke-on-Trent Live reports.
In a statement read at the inquest, the driver said: "The collision happened on my side of the road and I had no chance at all to take evasive action." Other motorists came to the aid of both crash victims but Anna was found unresponsive in her driver's seat.
Anna's partner, Greg Peters, paid tribute to Anna, describing her as an ‘amazing’ woman who was his ‘perfect’ match.
Greg, who lived with Anna in Abbots Bromley, had been intending to propose to her. As she lay in her hospital bed, he arranged for a vicar to give a blessing and placed a ring on her finger.
The couple had spent the day before the crash enjoying a ‘perfect Sunday’. Anna had only recently been headhunted by Macclesfield FC to become the club’s gym manager and was due to work a late shift on October 18.
Greg got up first at 6.30am and left for work, kissing goodbye to Anna as she remained in bed. “She walked the dogs before going to work,” he said. At 2.30pm, he got a call to say she’d been involved in an accident and was in hospital.
Greg said he had ‘never known’ Anna to eat or drink while driving. She had also taken food with her to eat later that day, so he was surprised to hear she had called at KFC.
PC Sarah Mulvey, a forensic collision investigator, said there was no evidence of any braking before the impact or any obstruction on the road. But food was found on the Seat’s airbag which was deployed on impact.
Acting South Staffordshire senior coroner Andrew Barkley said it ‘suggests very strongly’ that Anna was eating at the time of the crash. He concluded that the death was due to a road traffic collision.
The inquest heard she had suffered an ‘unsurvivable’ traumatic brain injury. Anna had been on the organ donor register and her final act was to donate her organs to help save the lives of six other people.
