A coroner has been unable to determine what caused a crash that led to the death of an 86-year-old Tasmanian man, despite an extensive investigation into the fatal incident.
Kenneth Warn died on May 27, 2024, from injuries he suffered when the vehicle he was travelling in veered off Tea Tree Road in Brighton on March 1.
In her recently published findings, Coroner Olivia McTaggart said she could not establish why the driver lost control.
The crash happened around 2:35pm when the Mercedes panel van Warn was a passenger in veered onto the grass verge as the driver prepared to turn left into Briggs Road.
The van hit a concrete culvert and crashed through a fence. The driver told police at the scene he “suddenly lost steering and could not explain why”.
However, later in a sworn affidavit, the driver changed his story, claiming a white ute travelling in the opposite direction had forced him off the road by crossing partly over the centre line.
The coroner rejected this version, saying the driver “would have told the police officers at the scene if this had occurred”.
A witness, who had been driving the ute later blamed by the driver, stopped to help after the crash and told police the van had veered left as if a tyre had blown out.
In a later affidavit, he said it looked “as if the driver wasn’t paying attention or asleep”.
A vehicle inspection found both left tyres on the van were deflated and damaged, but investigators couldn’t confirm whether this was caused by a sudden blowout while driving or during the crash itself.
Coroner McTaggart concluded the crash likely happened either due to a mechanical failure beyond the driver’s control or because he lost concentration and drifted off the road.
“I cannot positively determine which of these two scenarios occurred,” she said, ruling out speed, weather conditions, alcohol, drugs or road factors as contributors.
Warn suffered a burst spinal fracture in the crash and spent nearly three months in the Royal Hobart Hospital before passing away from complications, including pneumonia.
