A GRANDFATHER from Elstead was crushed to death in front of his teenage granddaughter when his holiday caravan fell on him during a family holiday in Cornwall, an inquest heard last week. Alfred Gosden, 82, was trying to turn the caravan around manually on a slight slope when the accident happened in front of 15- year-old Samantha. An inquest in Truro heard last Thursday how Mr Gosden, a retired heating engineer, was on the first day of his holiday with his granddaughter, then 14, and his wife Terri, when tragedy struck on July 29 last year. Mrs Gosden had been driving the couple's blue Peugeot 406 towing the Discovery caravan behind en route to a camp site at Buddock Water, near Falmouth in west Cornwall, when the trio got lost down narrow lanes around the village of Mawnan Smith. In a statement read out to the court, Samantha told how her grandmother had pulled into the car park at Maenporth beach in order to turn around but was unable to manoeuvre both vehicles. Samantha said she and her grandfather got out of the car and he detached the caravan from the back of the vehicle. "The back of the caravan was facing the sea on a slope. I was on one side of the axle and grandad was on the other - he turned the caravan halfway around and it began to roll down the slope - he tried to grab the handbrake to stop it rolling while I pushed it to try to stop it. "Suddenly he fell onto his knees and the caravan rolled forward - I jumped out of the way as it rolled on top of grandad." Samantha told how initial attempts to call the emergency services failed because she could not get a signal on her mobile phone, leaving Mrs Gosden to hurry to a nearby bar to raise the alarm. Mr Gosden, who had taken many family holidays in Cornwall, died at the scene. A post-mortem examination revealed he had died from a fractured neck. Samantha said: "People rushed to help us. The ambulance crews told us grandad had died. It was a pure accident he had tried to turn the caravan around but had lost control of it." Samantha was accompanied by her father Michael to the inquest held in Truro. Mrs Terri Gosden died in January this year. Mark Richards, vehicle examiner for Devon and Cornwall Police, told the inquest that although the caravan had a remote control moving system, Mr Gosden had not used it. He said: "The system allows the caravan to go forwards and backwards and to turn around - it normally takes two or three minutes to operate. "It would have worked even on a slight slope. "The caravan was in a satisfactory condition." Cornwall deputy coroner Mr Peter Black-Smyth recorded a verdict of accidental death. While the family were at the inquest, Mr Gosden's car was damaged and a floral tribute to his dead father stolen. Mr Gosden had left the flowers on Maenporth beach close to where his father had died as a mark of respect. When he returned to the beach he found the flowers had gone and his car, a Peugeot 406, had been scratched with a key.
