William Dawson inquest: Yorkshire apprentice gamekeeper, 19, died after crashing car into casino while over the drink drive limit

William Patrick Dawson, 19, was not wearing a seatbelt when he took a corner at speed, lost control and struck a casino on Sandside while giving two friends a lift during a night out in March 2020.

An impact with a lamp-post caused the driver’s door to rip from the car, ejecting Mr Dawson from the Seat Ibiza he had only bought days before. He died at the scene from head and spinal injuries.

His teenage passengers, Daniel Lancaster and Hannah Smith, had got into the car outside a bar to listen to a modification to the vehicle’s exhaust, and had not expected Mr Dawson to drive anywhere as he had been drinking. They had both been sitting in the passenger seat, but escaped with minor injuries.

The inquest at North Yorkshire Coroner’s Court was told that a postmortem found Mr Dawson’s blood alcohol level to be 175mg, more than twice the legal limit of 80mg. There were no drugs in his system.

Mr Dawson, the youngest of three sons, grew up in a farming family in Sherburn, near Pickering, and attended Norton College. Described by one of his brothers as ‘popular, loved by many and the life and soul of the party’, he was doing a gamekeeping course at Bishop Burton College and working on a local estate where he was highly-regarded.

Mr Dawson passed his driving test in 2017, but his brother described him as ‘experienced’ as he often drove a variety of vehicles, including tractors, quads and ATVs, on private land as part of his job.

Although family members and friends testified that he rarely wore a seatbelt and had even bought a clip that disabled the warning alarm function in his car, he was not known to drink drive and often stayed with friends after nights out or asked for lifts from his parents.

One friend, Luke Ainley, gave a statement in which he said he was aware Mr Dawson had crashed his previous car, a Ford Focus, and that he had a reputation for ‘driving like an idiot’, speeding and performing handbrake turns in car parks. Mr Ainley was with the group drinking in Scarborough on the night of the collision, and saw the three heading to Mr Dawson’s car. After approaching them as he had concerns Mr Dawson had been drinking, he was told they were only keeping warm and listening to the engine. Soon after he left, the car set off.

Mr Lancaster, who was 17 at the time, said there had been ‘no discussion’ about going anywhere in the Ibiza, and that ‘without warning’ Mr Dawson left the car park. Mr Lancaster added: “He was driving proper quick. He was swerving, it was a bit erratic. Neither me or Hannah had our belts on. Once we were on the seafront, I would estimate Will was doing between 60-70mph. He crashed on the corner.”

Miss Smith, who had known Mr Dawson through Young Farmers Club, said: “He was not a good driver – he went fast and rarely wore his seatbelt. We had no intention of going anywhere. He was trying to tell me he was a good driver, and I said ‘don’t you dare drive anywhere Will’. He couldn’t string a sentence together. My friend called me and said she was at the seafront, and Will said we would meet her there. I said ‘please don’t, you’re not safe to drive’. It was unexpected. He set off fast and I was thrown around a bit.”

An off-duty police officer who noticed the Ibiza’s speed was so concerned he reported it to duty officers, and a police reconstruction established from CCTV footage that the car was likely travelling at 60mph in a 30mph zone when it lost control on a bend, drifted over the central line, mounted a curb and began to rotate. The investigation concluded that no other vehicles were involved and no defects were responsible.

Mr Dawson’s family questioned TC Patrick Green, who gave evidence, about the presence of a white Vauxhall Corsa with two men inside which was the first on scene after the crash. They had concerns it could be an unmarked police car, and that Mr Dawson had accelerated when he spotted it following him at a set of traffic lights. TC Green confirmed that it was not a police vehicle, nor was there any evidence of racing or ‘competitive driving’.

The Dawsons added that they believed there were ‘lies and inconsistencies’ in witness statements and CCTV footage that they had been shown.

Recording a conclusion of death in a road traffic collision, assistant coroner Jonathan Leach said: “Will had a keen interest in cars. He was very proud of his new car, but was driving it at speed when it left the road.”