A YOUNG driver died at the scene of a high-speed crash – just half an hour after sitting behind the wheel of his new car for the first time.
An inquest heard how former St Martin's School pupil Robert Hyde, known to everyone as Bob, was not wearing a seat belt when the 2006 black Vauxhall Astra he was driving span out of control slamming into a railway bridge near Prospect Way in Wash Road.
The 22-year-old, from Woodland Avenue, Hutton, died of multiple injuries sustained from the force of being thrown about as the car ricocheted off one side of the brick bridge near Prospect Way, into the retaining wall on the other side.
The accident, which happened shortly before 10.30pm on February 17 this year, left the car a mangled wreck, almost unrecognisable as an Astra.
Mr Hyde, who had worked at F J Harnett and Sons wholesale nursery in Stock, had only just bought the car that same afternoon – his mother picking it up from the car dealers just a few hours before the accident. It was later that evening that Mr Hyde left his home for McDonald's at the Mountnessing roundabout, followed in convoy by friend Robin Dixon-Fyle.
Sgt Richard Raker from Essex Police forensic collision investigation unit, believed that Mr Hyde, who had accelerated away from his friend, may have been unfamiliar with the driving characteristics of the new car.
The accident unfolded as the vehicle travelled over a slight rise in the road.
The inquest heard how Mr Dixon-Fyle, driving his own Ford Fiesta, saw the Astra starting to wobble from side to side as Mr Hyde tried to correct the car's steering one way and then the other until he could hold it no longer.
Although police could not ascertain at what speed he was driving, CCTV film footage taken from a camera near the accident site captures Mr Hyde's car travelling past at significantly higher speeds than other vehicles.
His mother, visibly upset throughout the 30-minute inquest at New Bridge House, Chelmsford, on Thursday, said: "I just don't know what happened, what you [the police] say seems feasible. He must have only had the car for less than half an hour. Maybe he looked down and started fiddling with the music and then lost control."
Sgt Raker added: "Had Bob been wearing a seat belt would have substantially increased the chances of surviving the incident."
Mr Hyde was survived by his mother Claire, father Vince, elder brother Oliver and younger brother Charlie.
Tributes, flowers and a photograph were left at the side of the railway bridge the day after the crash, with messages penned by his friends and family.
HM Assistant Deputy Coroner for Essex and Thurrock, Tina Harrington said: "We may never know what happened." She recorded an verdict of accidental death.
