Inquest opens after man dies in collision with tractor

David John Rees, a retired driving instructor, sadly died at the scene of the crash in Bradford Abbas, Sherborne, on June 22.

Senior coroner for Dorset, Racheal Griffin, opened the inquest into his death at Bournemouth Town Hall on July 4.

Coroner’s officer, Matt Cave, told Dorset Coroner’s Court that David was born in Fareham but lived on Manor Close in Bradford Abass at the time of his death.

He was married to Diane Rees.

At 10.51am on June 22, police received reports of a crash between a white Suzuki Celerio and a blue New Holland Tractor.

The driver of the tractor was uninjured but unfortunately David, who was driving the Suzuki, died at the scene despite resuscitation attempts by emergency services.

He was formally identified by a police officer using comparison with a driving license.

A postmortem examination was conducted by Dr Purdue on June 26 and found his provisional cause of death to be chest injury and ischemic heart disease.

Ms Griffin adjourned the hearing for a pre-inquest review on November 7 at 2pm.

Dorset Police said in an update that enquiries are on-going and that no arrests have been made.

Sergeant Richard Stroud of the roads policing team said: “Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the man who very sadly died in this collision.

“We are conducting a full and thorough investigation to establish the circumstances of what happened. I would urge any witnesses or anyone who may have captured relevant dashcam footage to please make contact with us.

“Finally, I would like to thank members of the public for their patience and understanding while the road closures were in place.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police at www.dorset.police.uk, via email at scit@dorset.pnn.police.uk, or by calling 101, quoting incident number 22:185. Alternatively, independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously online at Crimestoppers-uk.org or by calling Freephone 0800 555 111.