A pregnant teenager and her 21-year-old boyfriend were killed in a car smash after a road sign was twisted 60 degrees, an inquest in the UK has heard.
Josh Alexander, 21, and Jessica Poole, 18, collided with a truck at an intersection in Kent, south-east of London, last June and crash investigators said the rotated sign and “worn lines” on the road could have been a contributing factor.
The couple were driving to work at a Chinese restaurant, where they had been earning some extra cash ahead of the arrival of their baby boy.
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Alexander, who was driving the Vauxhall Corsa as it fatally crossed the path of the truck, and Poole died from their injuries at the scene of the crash.
The give-way sign for the road they were driving on had been rotated 61 degrees and road markings were faded in several places.
Forensic collision investigator PC Simon Masterson told the inquest “there were no warning signs” leading up to the crossroads ahead.
“This could have caused confusion to the driver approaching. The worn lines and the rotated sign could have been a contributing factor,” he said.
Since the tragic accident, fresh road markings have been repainted and the give-way sign has been put back to its correct position, warning of the intersection ahead.
Dash camera footage obtained from the truck suggested Alexander may have been briefly distracted by his phone as he approached the junction.
The inquest heard Alexander regularly used his phone’s satellite navigation to help with directions while driving.
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During his investigation, PC Masterson tested three of the most common sat nav apps – Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze – to check if any warned that an intersection lay ahead. All three apps failed to give an alert.
Based on the dash cam footage, PC Masterson told the inquest that Josh had looked “calm” and “in control of the vehicle” just before the accident.
Masterson said the Corsa had not slowed down at all as it approached the crossroad.
Crash investigators estimated Alexander was driving his car around 85-90 km/h, under the 100 km/h limit for that stretch of road.
