Taxi driver who killed three members of Cork family ‘suicidal’

An inquest into a crash that killed three members of a Co Cork family has heard how a taxi driver made 12 circuits of a main road before driving head-on into an oncoming car.

The head-on car crash on Hamelin Way, in Torquay, Devon, in July 2012 claimed the lives of Con Twomey (39), his six-month-old son Oisin and unborn baby girl. The taxi driver, Marek Wojciechowski, was also killed.

The inquest in Torquay heard today that the black taxi had driven 12 circuits around the Hamelin Way loop before a police vehicle with blue lights flashing and sirens sounding attempted to get Wojciechowski to pull over.

Seconds later he deliberately drove his car into oncoming traffic, the inquest heard. The inquest heard he was suicidal.

Most of the questioning on the second day of the hearing was over whether police should have adopted a more softly-softly approach, knowing that the 26-year-old taxi driver had left a four page note saying he intended to take his own life.

The Twomey family’s Volkswagen Golf had nowhere to go to avoid the impact, the inquest was told.

At the inquest Elber Twomey, the only survivor of the family who were on the last day of their holiday from Meelin in Cork, asked questions through her barrister about the lack of a specific police procedure to deal with suicidal drivers.

The jury inquest was told that CCTV footage later revealed that the black Vauxhall Vectra taxi had been driving around and around Hamelin Way in a circuit before being spotted by police response driver PC Ben Bickford.

Police were on the lookout, listing the driver as a high risk missing person after his wife, Agnieszka Wojiechowska, found a suicide note a few hours earlier. It said that he didn’t blame her, loved his children and was sorry that things hadn’t worked out.

Friends told how she was hysterical and unable to talk when she found the four-page note after asking him for a separation.

The inquest has heard that Wojciechowski’s wife was interviewed at Torquay police station a week after the incident. She told police she blamed herself for her husband’s death.

Speaking through a Polish interpreter she described how the couple had been arguing and how she had asked him to move out of their home. The couple had both worked at the Toorak Hotel in Torquay. They started having financial problems and three weeks before he died he started a new job working six nights a week for Torbay Taxis.

The Twomey family were on the last day of their South Devon holiday when the crash happened on Friday, July 6th, at 2.47pm.

They were travelling to Pembroke to catch the ferry back to Rosslare when the collision took place.

Ms Twomey ( 36), was 24 weeks pregnant at the time of the crash.

She lost her unborn baby daughter and her six-month-old son Oisin.

The couple were treated for serious brain injuries at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth before being transferred to Cork University Hospital.

Mr Twomey died 10 months later.

Ms Twomey attended the first day of the inquest, supported by her brother and a family friend from Ireland. Twice she had to leave the courtroom to avoid hearing graphic descriptions of the emergency services' fight to save lives at the scene.

The inquest came to an abrupt halt after legal wrangling today.

The police barrister and Torbay coroner Ian Arrow disagreed over whether the 10-man jury should be asked a question about whether the authorities could learn lessons from the incident.

Mrs Twomey wants lessons to be learned, her barrister Chris Hough told the inquest at the Riviera Centre, Torquay.

She also wants to make a statement about how she has been affected since the tragedy .

In a written ruling Mr Arrow said it was clear that at least one of the families had concerns about the conduct of the police, and that it was a matter of human rights that there was public scrutiny, openness and transparency.

Police barrister Patricia Whitelaw then asked for an adjournment for an official review. This was refused. She then asked for an adjournment for a legal challenge.

Nicola Williams, an investigator for the Independent Police Complaints Commission found that police policies and procedures were carried out appropriately.

In cross-examination Mr Hough told her: “Mrs Twomey is very concerned that no family ever has to go through what she has been through again and she is concerned that there is nothing in your report that indicates that any lessons can be learnt.”

She replied: “With policies and procedures, we cannot expect any force to cover all scenarios. “That would be impossible.”

On the first day of the inquest the jurors were told that the note told Mrs Agnieszka Wojciechowska that her husband didn’t blame her, loved his children and was sorry that things hadn’t worked out between them.

After hearing the evidence of the Home Office pathologist coroner, Mr Arrow told Mrs Twomey: “Oisin would have been immediately unconscious and I don’t believe he would have been aware of the crash or any of the subsequent events.”