Tram driver did not realise he had hit body

A tram driver today told of the moment his Midland Metro struck a Wolverhampton police worker after he saw what he thought was a sandbag lying between the rails.

Sherman Porter said he had been slowing down from a speed of up to 50km an hour as he pulled into The Crescent stop at Bilston.

It was then he said he noticed an object which "looked like a sandbag gone hard".

Mr Porter was the first witness to give evidence in the inquest of 30-year-old Cheryl Flanagan, who worked at Bilston Street Police Station in the city centre and lived with her parents at Greencroft, Bilston.

He told the inquest today: "I just thought 'carry on' so I just carried on. As I carried on I went over it and I heard it going right the way through the tram going 'knock, knock, knock' all the time." He said he stopped the tram and radioed control to say he had gone over a sandbag and to alert the next tram.

Mr Porter donned a fluorescent vest and ran along the track to where the object was, which is when he saw Miss Flanagan's leg. "I got closer and then phoned control and said 'There's a body'," he told the jury. "I was in shock. I thought she was dead because of the way the body was positioned and her eyes were just fixed and there was no movement."

He then recalled how Miss Flanagan's father George came to the scene saying he was worried because his daughter had been missing for 15 minutes. Mr Porter said Mr Flanagan could see down the track and was asking if his daughter was down there. "I was just trying to calm him down. A woman arrived and said she was looking for her daughter who was missing,"

Mr Porter said. "They were very distressed. I was trying to calm them down."

He said the Flanagans were asking him why he was not taking any action and claimed the police took a "long, long" time to arrive.

The tram driver, who had to pause for 30 seconds while giving evidence today after being overcome with emotion, said he returned to his depot where he was breathalysed and produced a negative result. He said he had not been distracted while driving the tram.

Mr Porter said that even if he had braked when he had seen the obstruction, he believed the tram would still have struck as it had been raining and the tracks would have been slippery.

The inquest at Worcestershire Coroner's Court in Stourport-on-Severn continues.