At one point, the Powell family of six were on a trip together, on their way home from a visit to the children’s grandparents. In the next, mum Zoe (29), Phoebe (8), Amelia (4) and Simeon (6) were dead, after their seven-seater came over in the oncoming lane and crashed with a fully loaded truck of 36 tons, according to BBC News.
Dad Josh and the youngest daughter Penny (18 months) were also in the car. They survived the accident, which happened on the A40 main road through Oxfordshire in England on October 12 last year.
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Remember nothing
Josh has said that he does not remember anything about the accident, which tore away almost his entire family.
– I was blessed with four wonderful children, whose joy of life and adventurousness kept me busy in the best possible way (…) Now that we have time to rest and mourn, this is the challenge of the overwhelming loss we feel as a family, Josh wrote a little over a week later på Thames Valley Polices Facebook-side.
Just months before the accident, the family lost everything they owned when their home burned down.
The accident is widely reported in the UK, and the big question has been how the bottomless tragic accident could have happened.
TORN AWAY: Both mother Zoe and three of the four children died in the accident. Photo: Thames Valley Police
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An accident report is now available, according to Sky News. It concludes that Zoe, who was driving the car, suddenly steered the car sharply to the right, into the oncoming lane – but that it apparently happened by accident.
Probably an accident
Forensic pathologist Darren Salter testified at a court hearing in Oxford. He has investigated whether Zoe may have caused the accident on purpose, but concludes that there is no evidence to support that the 29-year-old intended to harm himself and his family.
Millionaire starved to death
– It is due to more likely exhaustion and distraction, or a combination of the two – and that the steering command was a driver error, Salter said.
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The Subaru seven – seater’s trip computer shows that the cruise control was activated, and that the car kept the speed limit of 60 miles per hour (approx. 100 kilometers per hour). At the last moment before the accident, the accelerator pedal was depressed instead of the brake – a not unknown phenomenon in such circumstances.
