A man has described how he tried in vain to stop his toddler daughter being crushed in an accident involving a runaway Range Rover.
Pearl Melody Black died aged 22 months when the vehicle rolled down a steep driveway and hit a brick wall that then collapsed on her.
The girl had been walking home from the park with her father Paul Black, 49, and her baby brother Ace when the driverless Range Rover began to roll.
An inquest in Pontypridd, south Wales, heard the handbrake had not been fully applied and the vehicle was not in “park” mode.
Black, who has appeared on the The Voice talent show, told the inquest: “The wall came down in a domino effect. It crushed her like a Coke can. I have never seen anything like it in my life and I hope never to again.”
Describing the moment of the crash, he said: “Pearl was walking at my knee. She had only just started walking. I looked down at Pearl and said: ‘Daddy’s hand now, tight.’
“I looked up and I could see a vehicle coming towards me and building up speed. The vehicle hit the wall. I threw Ace into the road. I tried to step in front of Pearl. I wasn’t quick enough to throw her as well.”
Black said he tried to use his body to protect Pearl in the street in the village of Heolgerrig, near Merthyr Tydfil. He said: “I’d rather not go into details. There was so much blood. I lifted the wall off her. I was saying: ‘Come back to Daddy.’ I just saw the life drain from those beautiful brown eyes.”
Andrew Williams, 51, a lorry driver, had left his automatic Range Rover on a driveway and the handbrake had been applied two notches out of a possible six, the inquest heard, and the gear lever was between park and reverse.
Williams told police he “didn’t physically check” it was in park. He said: “I assumed everything was alright. When I release the foot brake, as long as it rocks back and I get that lock I assume everything is OK.”
Williams said he does not pull the handbrake too far because he would be “just stretching cables”.
PC Gareth Davies, a collision investigator, confirmed the gear lever was between reverse and park. He said: “If it was applied properly it would not have come down the hill.”
Davies said if the handbrake or gear lever had been applied properly in isolation, they would have been able to hold the vehicle.
Ace was also injured but made a full recovery.
The coroner, Andrew Barkley, said the vehicle would not have moved if the brake had been properly applied. “Mr Williams said he assumed the gear lever was in park,” he said. “As far as the application of the brake is concerned, he did not count the number of clicks. Sadly, as we know, that was insufficient. It seems the issue here was very much driver operation.”
He recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
Outside court Pearl’s family called on the Crown Prosecution Service to review a decision not to prosecute Williams following the death in August last year. They said in a statement: “Our hearts are broken beyond repair and our lives will never be the same again.”
