Finding into death of Leslie Wallace Taylor

61y · Male·head injury sustained on impact by a car

Leslie Wallace Taylor, a 61-year-old man with intellectual disability who could not communicate verbally, died from head injury sustained when struck by a motor vehicle on Ballarat Road, Sunshine on 1 October 2022. Mr Taylor stepped onto the roadway attempting to retrieve a piece of rope/twine he had dropped, and was struck by a vehicle driven by Joanne Blacker who had momentarily looked away. The coroner found no evidence of driver fault, excess speed, or impairment. The key clinical lesson relates to vulnerability of people with intellectual disabilities in community settings: Mr Taylor's tendency to wander unsupervised and his inability to communicate or safely judge traffic risks created significant danger. While his carer had installed protective measures and a tracker device, supervision gaps remained. The coroner recommended improved street lighting as potentially preventive, though this was a traffic/infrastructure issue rather than a clinical failure.