Family halt death crash campaign

The coroner said the driver was travelling at excessive speed

The family of a man killed when his drunk friend crashed a car are giving up a five-year attempt to prove that the barrier the vehicle hit was faulty.

Glyn Gurney, 20, was killed in 2003 in Newport and his father and stepmother say they are unhappy with a verdict of unlawful killing at the inquest.

They have spent five years and have gone into debt commissioning independent reports into the barrier.

The only option left was an expensive appeal at the High Court, they said.

Mr Gurney died of chest injuries when the Volkswagen Golf in which he was a front seat passenger hit a central reservation barrier on the outskirts of Newport.

The pair were heading to the St Julians area of the city early on 30 May, 2003 after an evening spent drinking with friends when the crash happened.

Driver Christopher Dawkins was subsequently convicted of causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs.

Tests indicated he was around three times the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash.

The verdict has left us in limbo and I can't close the book on his life Nick Gurney, father of Glyn

He was subsequently sentenced to four years' imprisonment and banned from driving for 10 years, although this was later halved on appeal.

The inquest was delayed for several years while Mr Gurney's father, Nick, and his second wife, Kate, commissioned independent experts to look into why the crash barrier on the northbound A4042 Malpas bypass came away and wrapped itself around the vehicle.

Malcolm Macdonald, an expert in vehicle restraint system research at the Transport Research Laboratory, examined the barrier in the aftermath of the incident.

He said there was a possibility it had been split in a previous collision.

Mr Macdonald added that, if this was the case, he imagined the fault would have been visible and picked up during a regular inspection.

Alternatively he said the fault could have been only 0.8in (20mm) in size and at a joint on the underside of the barrier and therefore hidden away.

Travelling on these roads is only as safe as the motorists will allow Coroner David Bowen

In returning his verdict, Gwent coroner David Bowen said: "Travelling on these roads is only as safe as the motorists will allow. As I have said, Mr Dawkins will have known this road and roundabout well.

"Nevertheless he chose to approach it at excessive speed - certainly at not less than 70mph.

"Also he chose to drive after spending the evening drinking with friends."

After the inquest, Mr and Mrs Gurney said they were unhappy with the verdict.

They say they have no option at the moment to give up on their five-year campaign to find proof that the barrier was faulty.

"The verdict has left us in limbo and I can't close the book on his life," said Mr Gurney. "I feel we couldn't find the truth."

He added: "We are in debt now and we have a lot of money to pay back. We have lost everything and we have got a lot to pay back.

"We don't regret it. We wanted to close the book on his life and we couldn't do it."

Glyn Gurney's mother, Ruth Goodison, said: "The message I wanted to give would be not to drink and drive. Hopefully we can lay Glyn to rest now."