Mother of Marlow crash victim, 18, vows to ‘keep his name alive’ in call for change

The mother of an 18-year-old car crash victim from Marlow has vowed to ‘keep his name alive’, as she called for changes to be made to driving licences.

Drew Doolan, an apprentice mechanic, was killed after the car he was driving overshot a road junction and crashed into a tree in rural South Buckinghamshire at night in March.

At an inquest into his death at Beaconsfield Coroner’s Court this week, coroner Crispin Butler said he would write to the council’s highways team about improving warning signs at the junction.

Speaking to the Advertiser following the inquest, Drew’s mother, Yvonne Doolan, 48, called for changes to driving licences for new drivers, known as graduated licences.

Drew and his mother Yvonne (family handout)

“That will be Drew’s legacy,” Mrs Doolan said.

“Hopefully, that’s how his memory will stay alive, because I don’t want Drew to be forgotten.

“I refuse for him to be another statistic, and I don’t want his life to be for nothing, so I’ll keep his name and his memory alive.”

Drew lived with his family in the Gunthorpe area of Marlow, having attended Foxes Piece and Great Marlow schools.

He was learning to become a heavy goods vehicle [HGV] mechanic through an apprenticeship at Langley College - an interest sparked by his father James' job as an HGV driver. 

On the evening of March 26, Drew headed out driving with friends in his VW Polo to a car park in Christmas Common, East Oxfordshire.

Just before midnight, Drew and two passengers, his friends Alfie Stebbings and Daniel Eacott, left the car park and drove along the 60mph road towards Stokenchurch.

The unlit country road winds through woodland and fields before passing over the M40 and reaching a T-junction with the 50mph A40 Oxford Road.

Tuesday’s inquest heard how there were reflective ‘give way’ signs and hatched road markings at the junction, but no signs on the approach to it. Drew’s car overshot the junction.

A coroner will write to Buckinghamshire Council about the T Junction pictured (Google)

Tyre marks left on the road showed how he had tried to brake, the inquest heard, as the vehicle veered to the left before mounting a grass verge and smashing into a tree.

The crash flipped the car onto its roof and it caught fire.

Mr Stebbings and Mr Eacott were able to escape the wreckage, but Drew was unresponsive.

Senior Buckinghamshire coroner Mr Butler said Drew had died at the scene, having ‘sustained significant injuries which would have rendered him immediately unconscious’.

He was wearing a seatbelt.

Crash investigator Murray Maclean also gave testimony at the inquest, where he described the site by the junction as ‘upturned dirt and pieces of the VW strewn around’.

He said the car was too badly fire-damaged to determine whether it had a fault before the crash.

Reading the findings of the crash investigation report, Mr Maclean said: “Witness evidence suggests Drew had been driving at speed at the time of the crash.

“He was not familiar with the road and may not have been using full-beam headlights.”

He continued: “Had Drew Doolan been driving with more care and at less speed, the collision could have been avoided.”

Mr Butler said the crash was “indicative of a high-speed collision”.

But he added: “All the clues are at the junction, and if you don’t know the junction very well, you could be upon the clues and not able to stop.

“So, a misjudgement of the junction seems to me to be what we’re looking at here.”

Mr Butler said he would write to the council’s highways team about Drew’s death and signage at the fatal junction.

Drew was a trainee mechanic at Langley College

He said: “A young person who was interested in vehicles and wanted to develop a career in vehicles – sadly, it’s a road traffic incident that has taken him away.”

Tributes published after Drew’s death, from his parents James and Yvonne and sisters Millie, Portia, and Shannon, described him as ‘a kind and caring’ son and ‘the best brother’.

Speaking after the inquest, Mrs Doolan said the crash was 'every parent’s worst nightmare' and their house was now 'so quiet'.

Mrs Doolan added: “It really has ripped our whole family worlds apart.”

She called for changes to introduce graduated driving licences (GDLs), similar to those in place in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Graduated licences are issued to new drivers with restrictions such as driving at night and the number of passengers in a car.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Every death on our roads is a tragedy, and our thoughts are with everyone who has lost a loved one in this way.

“Whilst we are not considering graduated driving licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads and continue to tackle this through our THINK! campaign.

“We are considering other measures to address this problem and protect young drivers, as part of our upcoming strategy for road safety – the first in over a decade.”