Buggy driver tells of tragic turn at Center Parcs

A holiday park worker who hit and killed a colleague riding a bicycle while driving a golf buggy at less than 10mph has told a coroner how he had no time to "take evasive action".

John Davies, who was working at Center Parcs Woburn Forest, near Ampthill, Bedfordshire, said he was "devastated" when he learned that housekeeping team leader Penny Bulpitt had died.

Bulpitt, 67, suffered a "devastating" head injury after being hit from behind on a one-way Center Parcs road in September 2023, an inquest in Ampthill has heard.

A bin lorry driver who witnessed the crash said Bulpitt, who was not wearing a helmet, "flew in the air", even though the speed involved seemed "very slow".

Coroner Bina Patel heard evidence about Bulpitt's death on Tuesday.

She was told how Bulpitt, a grandmother who lived in Whipperley Way, Luton, had been riding an orange Center Parcs work bike alongside a row of accommodation lodges where members of her housekeeping team operated.

Center Parcs staff called the road "Penny Lane", a reference to a 1967 Beatles' song, the inquest heard.

A Center Parcs boss told the inquest that Bulpitt, who had worked at the holiday village for eight years, was "very popular".

The coroner heard how maintenance worker Davies, of Swift Close, Flitwick, Bedfordshire, had been turning his electric buggy at a junction.

"As I completed the left turn, I suddenly saw a woman on a bicycle in front of my buggy," Davies said in a written statement, read out by a lawyer.

"My impression was that she was turning towards me.

"I was too close to her to have time to take evasive action, by braking or turning."

Davies, 64 at the time, said he was "in a state of shock and dumbfounded" after the crash.

Bin lorry driver Andrew Douel, who was nearby, told the coroner, in a statement, that Bulpitt "flew in the air".

He said that was "surprising" because the "speed involved seemed very, very slow".

Davies was cleared of a driving offence earlier this year.

A judge at Luton Crown Court concluded that there was "insufficient evidence" to convict Davies of causing death by careless driving.

Judge Michael Simon heard that, "approximately two seconds" after turning, Davies' buggy had hit the back of Bulpitt's cycle trailer, causing a "fatal fall".

He was told that Davies had been travelling at nine mph "or thereabouts".

"To describe this case as tragic really does not do it justice," the judge said.

"Coexisting with its tragedy, there are features of its factual matrix which make it quite singular amongst cases of its type."

The inquest is due to end on Wednesday.

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