An inquest into the deaths of Lydia Marsh, 25, and her partner Stephen Rhodes, 49, has heard that police found no evidence he deliberately crashed into an oncoming lorry, despite fears raised by Ms Marsh's family that he had threatened her before the collision. The couple died in April this year when Mr Rhodes's Mazda MX-5 drifted into the path of an HGV near Gisburn, Lancashire, with Ms Marsh's relatives having previously alleged he was controlling and may have killed her deliberately after she reported him saying "if I can't have her then nobody else can."

Preston Coroners' Court heard on 9 September that collision investigators found the Mazda had been travelling within the speed limit and drifted gradually into the other lane just 1.5 seconds before impact, with no sign the car was out of control. A post-mortem examination indicated Mr Rhodes likely suffered an "acute cardiac event" moments before the crash, and a passer-by said the lorry driver told her at the scene that Mr Rhodes appeared to have "passed out or fainted," though this was not included in his formal police statement. Both occupants of the Mazda were wearing seatbelts and their airbags deployed, but Ms Marsh could not have prevented the collision given normal human reaction times.