A WOMAN was crushed to death when she was “inadvertently” run over by her partner after they had been out drinking to celebrate her birthday.

An inquest heard that Ralph Smith, who was later found to be two and a half times over the legal drink-drive limit, did not see 44-year-old Jacqueline Monger and went inside their house, unaware that she was under his car.

Miss Monger was found shortly afterwards by horrified neighbours and found to be dead at the scene.

An inquest in Bradford yesterday heard that Mr Smith was arrested and charged with causing death by careless driving, but the case was not proceeded with due to insufficient evidence.

He pleaded guilty at crown court to driving over the prescribed limit.

The inquest was told that Miss Monger, an unemployed office worker, and Mr Smith, who had been in a relationship for ten years, went out to celebrate her birthday, on May 3, 2014.

Mr Smith drove them from their home in Prospect Street, Cleckheaton, to Drighlington, where they went to a pub beer festival and then a pizza restaurant, where they continued to drink alcohol with their meal.

Mr Smith said his partner had more to drink and was quite drunk. He admitted drinking up to two pints of beer at the pub and a further pint of lager and half a bottle of wine at the restaurant, before driving them home in his Vauxhall Omega.

He said that when they arrived home, he stopped to let Miss Monger out of the car because it was a narrow street and he had to manoeuvre on to the kerb to park.

He said he saw her on the step outside the front door but did not see her after that. He then drove forward, back and forward again to park. He got out, went round the back of the car and into the house.

Witnesses said they saw him staggering into the house.

Mr Smith told Senior West Yorkshire Coroner Martin Fleming he had not been aware of any shudder or tremor to indicate he had run over anything. He guessed that Miss Monger may have fallen off the step.

The court heard there were no witnesses.

Collision investigator PC Martin Ward said there were no defects to the vehicle. He said there was evidence to support Mr Smith’s claims that he did not see Miss Monger or was aware of her presence under the car. The car bonnet would have obscured his view of her on the ground and he would not have been aware of her position in front of it.

PC Ward said the car was a large-engined automatic vehicle, which was partially on the kerb, and Mr Smith may not have known from the reactions of the car that it was running over anything.

Mr Fleming concluded that Miss Monger died as a result of a road traffic collision.

But he added: “Jacqueline Monger sustained fatal crush injuries when an intoxicated driver, in the process of parking his car, inadvertently drove over her when she was in a collapsed state outside her home.

“Though it is unclear how she came to be in the road, it is more likely than not the driver was unaware of her presence.”

He said her death was a result of a “catastrophic” inadvertent act when the driver was intoxicated and “had no business to be on the road”.

Mr Fleming said there were no witnesses to how Miss Monger came to be in the road. It could only be speculated that she may have lost her footing and fallen while intoxicated.

After the inquest, Miss Monger’s brother, Richard Monger, urged people not to drink and drive.

He said: “Ralph should not have been driving. It’s so sad because it was her birthday. It should have been a happy day that ended well, but for the price of a taxi, it didn’t.

“It is a real tragedy for everybody, for the whole family, and to a certain extent for Ralph himself. He has got to live with this for the rest of his life.”

Mr Monger said he would speak to his sister for hours on the phone.

He said: “She was a lovely girl, always happy. She is sadly missed by all the family. She was only 44. No-one should die so young. It is a waste of a life.”

MORE TOP STORIES