Driver involved in Duncton collision that killed four was travelling home on the A285, inquest hears

Anusha Srirajan, 58, was the driver of a white BMW involved in a fatal collision that claimed the lives of four people – including her own – on June 10, 2023.

Mrs Srirajan, alongside family members Asmitha Elango and Subathra Elango, were pronounced dead at the scene after colliding with a Mercedes Benz on the A285, near Duncton.

Her relative Navin Elango was also seriously injured.

Inquests held at Horsham Coroners’ Court on September 4 heard how Mrs Srirajan was travelling home when she 'failed to negotiate' a left-hand turn on her way down the narrow country lane.

She continued straight ahead, crossing to the the wrong side of the road and eventually collided with a Mercedes C200 travelling in the opposite direction.

Tobias and Alicia Bourke, in the Mercedes, both suffered serious injuries during the crash, and Alicia died several days afterwards – on June 17 – at Southampton General Hospital.

Detective Constable Rideout, a forensic collision inspector with Sussex Police, told the inquest that there was nothing to suggest Mrs Srirajan had failed to react to the impending collision.

Information downloaded from her BMW’s event data recorder (EDR) revealed she had made no attempt to brake, change direction or react to the crash, leading DC Rideout to conclude she had suffered either an unidentified medical incident, or fallen asleep at the wheel moments before the accident.

"From the data that is recorded, it is clearly showing a driver who is not reacting to anything that is happening,” he said.

Follow up inquiries conducted by the coroner’s court itself later revealed that the post-mortem inspection had not uncovered any evidence that Mrs Srirajan had suffered a medical incident at the time of the crash.

Mrs Srirajan and her husband were well known in Fontwell, where they lived and ran a corner shop for several years.

Mrs Srirajan’s family told the court of the incredible pain her death has caused.

“She was a real pillar of the community, and she loved being part of it just as much as they loved her,” their statement said, recalling her funeral, during which neighbours clapped and threw flowers on her hearse as it passed.

The family also emphasised that Mrs Srirajan was a conscientious, careful driver, who always took measures to keep herself and others safe.

Even as a passenger, they said, “she wouldn’t be scrolling on her phone, or taking a nap – she was aware, taking notice, making sure other people are okay.

"There were never any distractions (when she drove). Her phone would always be in her bag in her back seat.”

Mrs Srirajan’s passengers Asmitha Elango, 27, and Subathra Elango, 55, were declared dead at the scene alongside Mrs Srirajan.

Family member Nivan Elango, who sat in the front seat and survived the crash, told the inquest that they had been visiting from Canada when the incident took place, and that it continues to affect him both physically and psychologically one year on.

Since the crash, he has been prescribed a course of physiotherapy, antidepressants, and counselling to cope with the ongoing trauma, and remembers the crash itself almost ‘like a dream’.

Alicia Bourke, 47, was declared dead several days after the accident, on June 17, 2023.

Suffering serious injuries in the crash, she was taken to Southampton General Hospital for treatment, were her wounds were declared untreatable.

DC Rideout’s forensic analysis of the incident suggested Alicia – a passenger in the rear seat of the Mercedes, who lived in Petworth with her husband – was only wearing the lap strap of her seatbelt and was thrown forward into the rear of the front seat when the crash took place.

"Had she been fully seat-belted, that shouldn’t happen,” DC Rideout said.

Her husband Tobias Bourke had been driving the car and suffered several serious injuries of his own including a bleed on the brain, a seriously fractured right foot and a case of whiplash.

Relating his account of the incident, he said they were returning from a summer’s day at Bracklesham Bay beach, and that he knew the ‘A285 very well, having driven across it regularly’.

He also suggested that Mrs Srirajan’s white BMW had been attempting to overtake another car shortly before the crash, but Sussex Police investigations have not uncovered any evidence to suggest this was the case.

The investigation did, however, confirm that with both cars travelling at similar speeds (although it was likely Mr Bourke’s Mercedes was travelling slightly slower), and with no hard shoulder on either side of the narrow country lane, Mr Bourke had little time to react, brake, or otherwise prevent the collision from taking place.

He added that, in the moment, the crash felt like an inevitability, and that he ‘had nowhere to go’.

"It was like a wall of metal coming at us on both sides of the road,” he said.

“I remember thinking ‘this is it I’m going to get hit’. Even if I had time to get out of the way, there was nowhere to go.”