Coroner's Finding: Goss, Brittany Kate
Deceased
Brittany Kate Goss
Demographics
15y, female
Date of death
2014-07-11
Finding date
2016-01-29
Cause of death
Multiple blunt injuries due to being struck by a car
AI-generated summary
Brittany Kate Goss, a 15-year-old student, died after being struck by a car while crossing the West Tamar Highway in rural Tasmania at dusk. She had alighted from a bus to meet her father waiting across the road. A Nissan Pulsar traveling south at 61-77 kph struck her as she crossed. Police reconstruction and analysis determined the collision was inevitable and unavoidable by the driver, Noel Robson, who was driving within the speed limit. The accident occurred in darkness with limited visibility due to the bus and a northbound vehicle obscuring views. The coroner found no fault with the driver but recommended education programs encouraging parents to collect children from the bus stop side, extension of school bus speed limitations to rural routes, and public awareness of pedestrian crash risk factors.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Specialties
Clinical conditions
Contributing factors
- Darkness and poor visibility at accident scene (no street lighting, heavy cloud cover)
- Limited visibility due to bus and northbound vehicle obscuring views
- Pedestrian crossing highway at dusk on rural road
- Speed of vehicle (61-77 kph within 100 kph speed limit)
- Combination of environmental and visibility factors made collision inevitable
Coroner's recommendations
- Education and awareness program encouraging parents to collect children from the same side of the road that the bus stopped to minimize risk of similar accidents
- Consideration of extending the flashing light speed limitation on school buses to all buses operating on rural roads
- Awareness program including risk factors for serious pedestrian crashes: age group 15-19 years (highest risk), Friday (highest crash day), July (second highest crash month), and 3-7 pm (peak crash time)
- Further consideration of reducing urban speed limits to reduce vehicle/pedestrian accident rates
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