A Cleckheaton man has spoken of his relief at the conclusion of the inquest into the deaths of his wife and another woman who died in a car crash in Sri Lanka nearly five years ago.
Andrea Smith, 38, of Cleckheaton, and Michelle Kerr, 32, of Barnsley - who were in Sri Lanka on business with their Yorkshire-based clothing firm, SR Gent - died when their chauffeur-driven car smashed head-on into a stationary bus at high speed in August 1995.
The Sri Lankan driver, 26, was killed instantly, Mrs Smith was dead on arrival at hospital and Miss Kerr died while being transferred to a larger hospital 90 minutes' drive away.
Recording verdicts of misadventure Bradford assistant deputy coroner James Turnbull said the crash was caused by the driver being affected by alcohol, unsafe driving, some deficiency with the car itself, or a combination of all three.
Mrs Smith's husband John, 49, of Cleckheaton, who has since re-married, said: "I'm just glad it's all over at last.
"This is a big relief because it just seems to have gone on and on over the last five years.
"I still take flowers to the memorial to Andrea and Michelle at SR Gent's in Barnsley every August 16, but I've re-built my life, remarried and now I can start really thinking forward and getting on with my life.''
Mr Turnbull praised Miss Kerr's parents, who had met the cost of sending a coroner's officer to Sri Lanka to seek out the facts after initial inquiries produced sketchy information.
"It is important to pay tribute to Mr and Mrs Kerr on the persistence they have shown in being determined to do all that was humanly possible to know all they could about their dear daughter's death. I commend them for that,'' he said.
But Mr Smith said: "It's been horrendous - the inquest kept getting adjourned and started again and every time that happened it just raked the whole thing up again which really gets on top of you.
"I think the verdict's right but we should have had it five years ago.
"They've kept it going for so long and to be honest it's all been a waste of time really and nothing new has come out of it.
"Only the driver and two passengers know exactly what happened and they're all dead."
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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