Two young fathers who were on holiday in Turkey died after the quad bike they were riding crashed into a minibus, an inquest heard.
Cory Dove was driving the hired quad bike and his childhood friend Matthew Steward was his passenger, Monday’s hearing in Chelmsford was told.
The two, both aged 26 and from Harwich in Essex, collided with the minibus just before midnight on May 13 2024, according to a report from Turkish authorities.
Essex’s senior coroner Lincoln Brookes said the official date of death was recorded as the following day, once emergency services had attended.
Mr Brookes said Mr Steward’s parents managed to obtain documents from Turkish authorities, including a report from prosecutors who decided not to prosecute the bus driver.
The report said the collision happened at 11.55pm on May 13 last year and was described as “head on”.
It said that driver Mr Dove “crashed his ATV (all terrain vehicle) … while he was driving fast on the winding road”.
The report said the bus driver was in his own lane travelling in the opposite direction, and the two on the quad bike were thrown from the vehicle.
The bus driver said he was driving to a hotel picking up staff when the quad bike entered a bend and “crossed into my rightful lane”.
He said he was travelling at 30km/h and was “easily able to slow down” but the quad bike “violated the lane and hit my vehicle from the front left side at speed”.
In a statement read to the inquest, Mr Dove’s mother Sarah said her son had two children aged eight and one.
She said the construction worker “would give his last pound, he loved his family and friends”.
“Cory went on holiday with his girlfriend and his two boys,” she said.
“He met up with a childhood friend of his.
“He spent the day with him and in the evening himself and his friend went out … and a bus hit them both.”
She said Mr Dove “grew up on motorbikes and quadbikes, he knew how to ride which makes this so hard to believe he’s gone”.
Mr Steward, an electrical components factory worker, was also a father and his family said in a statement read to the inquest that he had a passion for metal detecting and for Christmas lights.
“We were robbed of many fulfilling years,” they said, adding: “He will be truly missed.”
Mr Dove’s partner said, in answer to a question from the coroner, that the two men had been travelling to a shop at the time of the crash and had made the journey “multiple times” that day.
Recording a conclusion that both men died as the result of a road traffic collision, the coroner said: “There’s a police report but it’s not what I would call a forensic collision investigation here.”
He said there were no details about whether either vehicle had mechanical defects.
Post-mortem examinations conducted in the UK recorded that both men died of multiple traumatic injuries and found that toxicology was “non-contributory”, with both men within the legal UK drink-drive limit.
Mr Brookes extended his condolences to family members in court adding: “The pain shared I cannot begin to imagine to be honest.”
