Pregnant Teacher Hit By Speeding Porsche, Died Two Weeks Before Due Date

A pregnant teacher in the United Kingdom died after getting hit by an overspeeding car, two weeks before her due date.

Anna Kirsopp-Lewis, 34, a teacher at Frome College, Somerset, was killed after Ian Barton, a pub landlord, 62, crashed into her car with his Porsche Cayenne 4×4 in Warminster on Dec. 18, 2018.

Kirsopp-Lewis died at the spot. Barton was hurried to the Southmead Hospital in Bristol, but he died five days later on Dec. 23.

Presiding at Salisbury Coroner’s Court on Thursday, Coroner David Ridley gave Barton’s cause of death as "traffic collision" and Kirsopp-Lewis’ as "unlawful killing".

The man's vehicle plunged into Anna’s car at such speed that she was thrown out and was pronounced dead at the scene. Anna was on her way to meet a midwife and was just two weeks away from the date she was due to give birth to her second child, Oscar, when she died.

Her husband Chris Lewis, a teacher at the Bishops Row College near Warminster, said his family’s lives are “empty without her”.

A dashcam footage showed Barton’s black Cayenne GTS racing on the wrong side of the road, seconds before the deadly crash. Crash expert Dean Beaumont, who studied the footage from a number of dashcams, said the speed could have been up to 120 to 148 mph before the crash.

The court heard statements from a number of witnesses who were overtaken by Barton on the A36 road, with one footage showing the Porsche hustling between two lorries just moments before the crash.

One witness, David Woods, said the vehicle was "going like a rocket", while another, Harry Barnes, recalled horrified onlookers crying "she's dead, she's dead" after the accident.

Paul Cloak, a van driver, the last to be overtaken by Barton just before the accident, said, "It just baffled me how anyone could be driving like that, there's no excuse for it."

Barton's wife Adele, with whom he ran Cotswolds gastropub The Wheatsheaf in Combe Hay, near Bath, said he never meant to harm anyone. He drives fast but never took risks.

Edwin Bucket, Lewis' family lawyer told the hearing: "Had he been alive, it is my submission that Mr. Barton would have been prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter."

The Coroner said Barton had ordered other road users to get out of his way as he raced along the wrong side of the road, losing control and killing himself and Kirsopp-Lewis. He also said Kirsopp-Lewis's seatbelt was ripped into pieces and she was ejected from the vehicle, coming to rest on the road.