Fulham Woman Was Run Over after Collapsing on Hyde Park Roundabout

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Driver thought local mother Caroline Vaughan-Salter was"rubbish in the road"

A property surveyor from Fulham was run over and killed after collapsing in the road on Hyde Park Roundabout, an inquest has heard.

Caroline Vaughan-Salter, 49 who lived in Walham Grove, one of Fulham's most expensive streets, spent the afternoon of October 16 last year at a business lunch.

Ms Vaughan-Salter then headed to a West End pub where she was described as "merry" shortly before heading home for Fulham.

But minutes later she collapsed in Grosvenor Place - the triple carriageway surrounding Hyde Park - and a motorist drove over her body thinking it was just some debris, Westminster Coroner's Court heard.

Nigel Amos, a colleague at estate agent Stiles Harold Williams where Ms Vaughan-Salter was a director, said she downed six glasses of wine at lunch before heading to the Three Crowns pub in Piccadilly.

Describing the drinking session, Mr Amos said: 'In total both myself and Caroline drank the equivalent of two bottles each."

A toxicology report said that Ms Vaughan-Salter, a mother of three, was around three times over the drink-drive limit at the time of her death.

CCTV captured Ms Vaughan-Salter crossing the roundabout at the south east corner of Hyde Park, before disappearing from view. According to witnesses she was lying still and apparently unconscious at a 90 degree angle to the kerb before delivery driver Richard Reid hit her.

"I couldn't imagine what else it could have been, I thought it must be rubbish in the road," said Mr Reid. "Literally cars were going past, and I thought it had just gone off their load, I thought everyone else had just gone over the same piece of rubbish, and I apologise for using that word.

"Never for a millisecond did I think it was a person. When I went over it there was just a feeling inside like that doesn't feel right, that doesn't feel like rubbish.

"I stopped and got out of the car, and as I came closer I could see it was a body and I just started screaming 'she was in the road'."

Westminster Coroner Darren Stewart described Ms Vaughan-Salter as a "vibrant, beautiful, glamorous woman with a quirky sense of humour. She was a loving and caring mother who invested a considerable amount of time in her children."

Recording a narrative verdict he said: "Ms Vaughan-Salter died from multiple injuries including a crushed chest. Given the extent of her injuries it is my finding that these were unsurvivable."

Revealing that there was evidence of heart disease which could have led to her collapsing in the road, Mr Stewart said: "I am unable to conclude that the verdict is one of accidental death, given the unanswered questions, indeed questions that will never be answered, in relation to what caused her to be lying in the road."

May 10, 2013