A MUM-OF-FOUR was killed in front of her children when she she was dragged 16metres by a car when she tried to bump start it.

Kerry Ann Bowers, 29, was crushed to death after she and her sister tried to start the faulty people carrier and she became trapped in the runaway vehicle.

Kerry's sister Georgia tried to push the car but its front wheels were just behind a speed hump on the road and could not be pushed over with Kerry in the driver's seat.

So Kerry also got out to push with one hand on the steering wheel as she stood between the open car door and the driver's seat.

An inquest in Truro, Cornwall, heard they pushed the large Ford Galaxy over the speed bump but it quickly gained speed down the road on the Pengegon Estate in Camborne, Cornwall.

Georgia told the hearing that the car picked up speed and Kerry was being dragged along by the car as it mounted a pavement and struck a hedge.

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She said: "Kerry was screaming at me to jump over her and get into the seat."

But by the time she got into the car it had crashed into a thick hedge 15 metres away and trapped Kerry between the door and the car frame.

Georgia said: "She kept saying she couldn't breathe, I said I couldn't do anything and was talking to her before I got the kids out of the car. 

“I waved down a car and asked the driver if he could help."

But Kerry, of Connor Downs, Cornwall, died at the scene.

There were no major faults with the car, just an intermittent wiring issue which affected the ignition.

The senior Cornwall coroner Andrew Cox recorded an accidental death conclusion.

He said Kerry was unable to get back into the car which mounted a pavement and ploughed into a thick hedge.

He said: "Hedgerow forced the driver's door shut and Kerry was caught in the gap and the door and was sadly asphyxiated.

"I struggle to recognise that something as innocuous can have such a devastating outcome. I've done this myself on many occasions."

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