Eleisha Skinner inquest: Student, 21, crushed to death by her own car while unloading belongings on icy driveway

A college student died after being run over by her own car on an icy, sloping driveway without safety barriers, the coroner has found.

Eleisha Skinner, 21, a promising social worker from Faversham, Kent, was a student at Buckinghamshire New University.

Miss Skinner had returned from her Christmas holiday and was unloading her black Audi A1 outside her accommodation in High Wycombe on January 4.

The inquest heard the woman parked the vehicle upside down in the sloping driveway. As Ms Skinner retrieved items from the back of the car, it “slipped” on the dangerous surface and pinned her against a wall outside the property.

The inquest heard another resident of the accommodation called emergency services after hearing a “pop”, a woman “screaming” and shouts of “get off, get off” and found Ms Skinner unconscious.

Senior coroner Crispin Butler told Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court on Tuesday that officers at the scene noted the “sloping” driveway had been covered in ice after the winter weather, making it “very slippery”.

But the driveway had not been salted or paved and Mr Butler said there were no barriers or railings to prevent “overflow”.

The coroner said he would write to accommodation owners Howarth Property, which the inquest heard had since installed railings, so they could explain what had been done to reduce the safety of the driveway.

The inquest heard the firm wrote in a letter to the coroner that professional inspections of the property determined the driveway was considered safe.

But Mr Butler issued a report to Howarth Property to prevent future deaths due to concerns “an incident could occur in which another individual may die”.

The company has 56 days to say what action has been taken.

The inquest heard Ms Skinner’s car was in neutral, had “no fault whatsoever” and the handbrake was “fully engaged”.

He was taken to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but died on 8 January.

A medical examination revealed that he died of anoxic brain damage due to compression asphyxia, meaning the pressure on his body prevented him from breathing properly.

Mr Butler wrote in the inquest record: “Regardless, the incident appears to have occurred when Eleisha’s vehicle, after being parked with the handbrake engaged, skidded and ended up in the back of the driveway, with the boot open and Eleisha in the back of the car during the unloading process.

“It was a very cold night, with frost on the frozen snow, making the incline very slippery.

“There were no guardrails or other barriers or obstructions to prevent a vehicle from leaving the roadway, nor was there any evidence that the driveway had been salted or sanded.”

Miss Skinner, who was crowned “Miss Faversham” in 2022 and later “Miss Congeniality”, was described by her family as a “kind, dedicated and passionate young woman who always put others before herself” in a statement read by Mr Butler.

They spoke of Ms. Skinner’s “fun, bubbly personality”; which meant “she was life and soul wherever she went” and they said she was “the kind of person who made the world brighter just by being in it”.

The statement said: “We will always carry her with us, our beautiful Eleisha, forever loved, forever missed and never forgotten.”

The inquest heard that Buckinghamshire New University said Ms Skinner would be awarded a bachelor’s degree with honors in social work posthumously.