THE exact circumstances leading to the death of a woman killed on her own driveway remained a mystery after an inquest today (Thursday, October 29).

Mother-of-three Tracy Evans, 41, died when she was crushed by the family’s mobile coffee shop van outside their home in Roumania Crescent.

She suffered brain damage when the Mercedes van moved forwards just a couple of yards, trapping her against a wall.

She was taken to Glan Clwyd Hospital and four days later was transferred to the trauma unit at the Royal Stoke University Hospital but died on January 25.

In a statement read at the Ruthin hearing her husband Jonathan Evans said they occasionally let the engine of the van run in winter to charge the battery and on January 20 he asked his wife to switch off the ignition after about half-an-hour as he was going into town.

Later that afternoon neighbours were alerted by children shouting “Mum, Mum”, and they found Mrs Evans, who was a sales assistant at the town’s Next store, pinned between the van and the wall.

Mr Evans said the gradient of the driveway was only four degrees and the van had moved forward only about two yards.

He said his wife would merely have needed to reach inside the vehicle to switch off the ignition, adding: “There does not seem to be any sequence where she would have needed to release the parking brake.”

A police investigation found that the brakes would have passed an MOT test but when the handbrake was applied by up to eight notches the van could still be moved with some force.

John Gittins, coroner for North Wales East and Central, said it would be only speculation as to what exactly had happened, adding: “The reality is that there is insufficient forensic evidence to form a view as to which way it came about.”

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, he said: “The reason cannot be fully explained or determined but the vehicle moved and, very tragically, Mrs Evans became trapped.”