Delay may have contributed to fatal smash

A MISPLACED phone charger may have played a part in a fatal car crash that claimed the lives of two people, an inquest heard this week.

American serviceman Bradly Ring was on his way to RAF Mildenhall when he realised he had forgotten to take his charger, forcing him to rush back to his house in Main Street, Littleport to retrieve it.

The minutes lost fetching the charger put the staff sergeant behind schedule and with a flight to Greece to catch, he may have been driving faster than normal when he was involved in an accident that claimed his life and that of 56-year-old Kathy Faelber.

The accident took place at about 4.45pm on April 2 on the busy A1101 road that links Littleport and Mildenhall.

Alan Fisher, of West Row, who was travelling towards Littleport at the time of the accident, told the inquest he was “struck by the high speed” of Mr Ring’s Honda and said that after hitting a bump in the road, the 26-year-old suddenly lost control of his car and swerved towards the grass verge.

Beck Row resident Richard Rice, who also witnessed the collision, said that Mr Ring was “fighting to try and correct the car” when he passed him and saw him shoot to the right before noticing “an explosion of car parts” in his mirror as he collided with Mrs Faelber’s Mazda, which was at the back of a line of cars.

Collision investigator Pc Franic Crawford, said that Mr Ring’s loss of control had caused an almost 90 degree “T-bone” collision.

Mrs Faelber was on her way to a concert at the Fenland Music Centre in March, where she was a director, when the accident occurred.

She died of severe head injuries as a result of the smash while Mr Ring’s cause of death was given as multiple traumatic injuries.

Coroner for North and East Cambridgeshire, David Morris, recorded a verdict of accidental death for both Mrs Faelber and Mr Ring.