Trucker who blacked out after coughing fit escapes charges over fatal crash The lorry driver, who is married with two sons, sobbed as he recalled the crash near Seaham, County Durham, as he was as he was driving back to have lunch on April 25 last year. He told the inquest: "I was coughing at nowt. I tried to get a breath in. I started to panic. There's no lay-by, I'm going to have to park in the road and the next thing I remember is peace and quiet. After Mr Davis regained consciousness, he had a pain in his stomach where he had hit the steering wheel. Feeling frightened by the blackout, he wanted to ring his wife and tell her he had been in an accident but someone took his phone away. He recalled being told his lorry had hit a car. I said, 'Oh, Jesus Christ, is he fine?' He said, 'Yeah, yeah, he's fine, he's getting sorted out now'. It was only when he was being treated at the Sunderland Royal Infirmary that police told him three people had been killed in the crash. Mrs Reed died in hospital three weeks later. Asked if there was anything he would like to add, Mr Davis looked at the grieving family members and replied: "A lot of things, but I can't. Just that my heart goes out to them. Ronald Davidson, who was following the lorry in his Range Rover, said it appeared the driver had suffered a heart attack because he failed to slow down to negotiate a bend immediately before the crash. Dr Nigel Stout, who runs a black-out clinic at the Sunderland hospital, carried out whooping cough blood tests on Mr Davis after hearing that the lorry driver's teenage son had also passed out during a coughing fit. The doctor told the inquest that the infection was found to be present. He said cough syncope, where a patient passes out then regains consciousness when the coughing fit stops, was an unusual but well-recognised condition. Durham Police found no evidence that Mr Davis had been using his mobile phone at the time of the crash, a breath test proved negative, and the lorry had no mechanical faults. Ian Haigh, who led the police investigation and has since retired, said the trucker's story was examined in detail. "We go to extreme lengths to check what people are saying is correct and whether they are telling lies, and in this case nothing that we have found would suggest a lie has been told by Mr Davis," he said. Recording verdicts of accidental death, Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle said that the crash would have been avoided if Mr Reed's car had been a few seconds earlier or later. "It really was one of the most tragic situations of being in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time," he said. After the hearing, Steven Reed, whose mother, father and grand-daughter were killed, said of the lorry driver: "He has not even got the balls to say sorry. I will never get over it. Julie Duggan, whose son, Sean, was Natalie's partner and Destiny's father, added: "Natalie was so loveable and Destiny was absolutely gorgeous. She was beautiful. I don't know how he can live with himself.