A catastrophic misjudgement by a teenage learner driver led to she and her father being killed, an inquest heard.

Michael Oakley, coroner for North Yorkshire East, recorded verdicts of accidental death on Stephanie Williams, 17, and her father, the Rev Barry Williams, 56, who died in a crash on the A64 near Malton on December 16 last year.

Stephanie, who obtained her provisional licence last October, was driving her family's N-registered blue Citroen AX hatchback when she pulled out in front of an E-registered 38-ton Volvo articulated lorry shortly after 1pm that day.

She had followed another car which had successfully turned right on to the westbound A64 from the B1258 Yedingham and West Knapton road.

Stephanie and her father - the vicar of Rillington with Scampston, Thorpe Bassett and Wintringham - were pronounced dead at the scene after suffering fractured skulls and multiple injuries. Mr Williams, of the Vicarage, High Street, Rillington, is believed to have collected his daughter from Scarborough Sixth Form College at about 12.30pm to give her an informal driving lesson.

Stephanie had taken 18 hours of lessons with the British School of Motoring.

Instructor Carol Glover felt she would have needed between 10 and 20 more hours before taking her practical test.

Lorry driver David Bolton, of Longridge, Preston, declined to give evidence at yesterday's inquest hearing at Scarborough Magistrates' Court. Instead, Mr Oakley read an extract from the record of a police interview carried out on January 9.

Mr Bolton, who was driving from Manchester to Scarborough with a load of steel, told police the Citroen driver appeared to hesitate before committing herself to pull out from the minor road.

"When she carried on, there was nothing I could do. When I swerved to the right, she just looked up at me and then I heard an almighty bang."

Police accident investigator PC Kenneth Sandercock said the Citroen was "impaled" across the front of the lorry's tractor unit.

He estimated that the lorry was travelling at about 43.5mph at the time of the accident. Allowing for some inaccuracy in the tachograph reading, this meant it was exceeding the speed limit for that class of vehicle by about 7mph.

But PC Sandercock said Mr Bolton, who appeared to have slowed down as he approached the junction, would only have had about a second to react when the car pulled out - making a collision inevitable.

Mr Oakley said he was not aware of any other fatal accident at the junction and stressed that it was by no means an accident blackspot.

Referring to Stephanie, he concluded: "There has been what I can only describe as a catastrophic misjudgement on her part when she has pulled out in front of this lorry driven by Mr Bolton."

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