Rufus Davies sustained fatal head injuries in the collision
A two‑year‑old boy died after being struck by a family friend who was reversing onto her driveway, an inquest has heard.
Rufus Davies suffered fatal head injuries in the collision, which occurred in May last year while he was visiting friends with his parents. Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner’s Court was told the toddler had been moments from greeting the family friend when the incident unfolded.
The family had parked on the driveway of a property in Tidcombe, near Marlborough, and were waiting for their friend, Tamsin Hayward, to arrive. As Mrs Hayward approached, Rufus’s mother, Olivia Davies, allowed him to get out of the car.
“I told Rufus that Tamsin had arrived, and he was so excited to see her, he wriggled to get out of the car,” Mrs Davies described in a written statement. “I opened the driver’s door and helped him down. He ran round the back of the car.
“I figured Tamsin would park the nose of her car straight in next to mine and that in the time between his feet touching the ground and running behind my car she would have parked. It turns out she wanted to reverse her car in.
“I reached for my phone, water bottle and jumper from the passenger side, and as I got out of the driver’s door, I heard my daughter say to me, ‘Mummy, Rufus has been hit by Tamsin’s car’. I then ran to the back of my car and saw Rufus laying on the floor.”
Realising she had hit the toddler with her vehicle, Mrs Hayward got out of the car and began to perform CPR until paramedics arrived. However, the two-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene shortly afterwards.
In a written statement, Mrs Hayward said she backed her Porsche Macan onto her driveway, which was her standard routine.
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“I always drive very slowly in through the gate and into the drive,” she said. “Olivia and her daughter were standing on the grass outside their car on the driver’s side. I was really happy to see them and waved at them and said ‘hello’ as I drove in and had my driver’s window down.
“I knew that Rufus was also coming that day, but he wasn’t standing with Olivia and her daughter on the driver’s side or anywhere to be seen on the driveway when I drove in. I drove forward into the driveway, moving anti-clockwise around the grass circular island on my driveway.
“Apart from Olivia and her daughter, the driveway was clear and there was no one else to be seen. I drove approximately 180 degrees around the island, drew to a stop to then reverse back into my usual parking space.”
She also claims to have checked her wing mirrors and rear-view mirror before backing up, performing a careful manoeuvre. “In the second, I was looking between my right wing mirror and rear view mirror, about halfway into the parking spot, I felt the car had gone over something on the driveway,” she recalled.
“The bump I felt was on the passenger’s rear side of the car. I exited the car and saw a child lying on the gravel. To my horror, I realised the gravity of the situation and that Rufus must have been running behind me whilst I was reversing. I then saw Olivia running towards the back of the car with a look of horror on her face. I called 999 immediately.”
The car had no faults, and Mrs Hayward had tested negative for drugs and alcohol, according to PC Alexander Way, a collision investigator.
“The case has failed the Crown Prosecution Service threshold for any prosecution under the Road Traffic Act as the location is not deemed a public place or road, and the driving is not deemed under current case law as careless,” the investigator said. “It’s an extremely tragic incident with the most devastating of outcomes.”
Rufus had died from a diffuse traumatic head injury following an impact with a motor vehicle, a post-mortem examination found. Ian Singleton, the area coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, recorded a conclusion of misadventure.
“Rufus was so excited to see Tamsin that he wanted to get out of the car, so he was helped down and ran around the back of his mother’s car, unwittingly into the path of Tamsin’s car,” he said.
“The police investigation noted that at 1.03 metres tall, Rufus would not have been visible through the rear window unless he was 4.3 metres away and the parking sensors would not extend that far, creating an area in which a child of Rufus’s height would be invisible.”
Mr Singleton added: “That remains me to pass to the family of my very, very sincere condolences on your loss. I cannot imagine.”
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