Student crushed after unpacking car on icy slope
Geograph/Lewis ClarkeA student was crushed to death by her car while unloading her belongings at her accommodation on a sloped driveway, a coroner has concluded.
Eleisha Skinner, 21, who was studying at Buckinghamshire New University, reverse-parked her black Audi A1 outside her accommodation in High Wycombe on 4 January when the vehicle slipped and she became pinned to a wall.
The aspiring social worker, from Faversham in Kent, died in hospital on 8 January.
Her death was ruled as an anoxic brain injury due to asphyxia compression, meaning pressure on her body prevented her from breathing properly.
The inquest, held earlier at Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court, heard how Skinner had just arrived back at university after the Christmas break.
Police officers who attended the scene said the driveway was covered in ice after wintry weather, making it "very slippery".
Senior coroner Crispin Butler said the driveway had not been salted or gritted, and barriers had not been installed to prevent vehicles overrunning.
The inquest heard how Skinner's car had been in neutral with the handbrake "fully up" and there were no reported defects.
'Making the world brighter'
Howarth Property, which owns the accommodation, has since installed railings and said professional inspections carried out at the driveway had determined it was safe.
Skinner was crowned Miss Faversham in 2022 and was described by her family in a statement read in court as a "kind, selfless and passionate young woman, who always put others before herself".
She was described as being "always the life and soul wherever she went" and was a "kind person who made the world brighter just by being in it".
Buckinghamshire New University said it would award Skinner with a posthumous BSc with honours in social work.
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