A university worker was ‘crumpled’ to the floor outside a Starbucks after being struck and killed by a roofing panel, which was blown about ‘like a piece of paper’ in Storm Doris.
Jurors were told the section of a water tank cover – similar in size to a dining table – hit Tahnie Martin after falling from the roof of a six-storey building during Storm Doris last February.
Ms Martin, a 29-year-old university worker from Stafford, was pronounced dead near Wolverhampton’s Mander Centre shopping centre after suffering head injuries, just a month after getting engaged.
Jurors were told the section of a water tank cover – similar in size to a dining table – hit Tahnie Martin after falling from the roof of a six-storey building during Storm Doris last February
Ms Martin, a 29-year-old university worker from Stafford, was pronounced dead near Wolverhampton’s Mander Centre shopping centre after suffering head injuries
Tahnie was determined 2017 would be ‘their year’ and the couple had recently bought their first home together.
Reading a statement at Black Country Coroner’s Court which quoted from F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Beautiful and the Damned’, Shaun Lee said: ‘It is difficult to find the words. She had so much to look forward to. Our lives will never be the same again.
‘She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved.
‘She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul.’
The inquest heard how Tahnie and Shaun first met when they were both working at adhesives firm Bostik. They met on his first day when she was trying to fix a computer. They started dating shortly afterwards and became engaged in January 2017.
The court heard how, in her last Valentine’s Day card to him, Tahnie had written how she was so excited to spend the rest of her life with him and that 2017 was going to be ‘their year’.
Shaun said she had originally wanted to become a war correspondent and studied American studies and journalism at Lincoln University before deciding she wanted to move into marketing.
A statement read to the court on behalf of Ms Sarpal paid tribute to Ms Martin as a ‘fab girl’ and a good colleague
During her school years, she had developed an interest in the Holocaust and had struck up a friendship with a Holocaust survivor. Because of this, her family had set up a donation page in her name following her death for the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Newark.
So far, almost £1,000 has been raised in her name and the centre is to shortly plant a white rose bush in her name with a plaque in her memory.
Emma Whitting, assistant coroner for the Black Country, was told part of the cover, which appeared to a witness to be rotten, landed in Dudley Street, while a smaller section did not reach ground level.
A statement given to police by witness Rebecca Cresswell said the incident happened after several gusts of high wind and lots of rain.
In the statement, read to the jury by the coroner, Ms Cresswell said she stood on a chair in a cafe overlooking the street to track the progress of the flying debris.
The witness stated: ‘I looked out of the window and I saw a very large wooden rectangular panel – it was like the wind had picked it up like it was a piece of paper.
‘I then saw it move quite rapidly. For a minute I thought it was aiming for me. I could see it had metal on it.
‘The panel continued to moved downwards and it tipped forwards. I saw there were people on the street and the wood was aiming in their direction.’
The inquest was told Ms Martin was walking with Wolverhampton University’s head of marketing, Raman Sarpal, who was knocked to the ground and treated for a leg injury.
The inquest was told Ms Martin was walking with Wolverhampton University’s head of marketing, Raman Sarpal, who was knocked to the ground and treated for a leg injury
The scene where Tahnie Lee Martin, 29 tragically died in February when Storm Doris hit Britain
After seeing the panel strike the women, Ms Cresswell said she was in shock, believing someone had died.
‘I had a clear view, watching it fall from the sky like a leaf,’ she said in her statement. ‘It took 10-20 seconds to get from top to bottom.’
A statement read to the court on behalf of Ms Sarpal paid tribute to Ms Martin as a ‘fab girl’ and a good colleague.
The inquest was told the pair were chatting about how windy it was when they were knocked to the ground.
In her statement, Ms Sarpal said: ‘I remember hearing the clatter of something on the floor. My legs were hurting and I was saying to Tahnie ‘I think I can get up’.’
Ms Sarpal then saw her friend being given CPR as she was tended to by retired doctor.
Another witness, Tiffany Whitehall, gave a statement to police describing how she watched the timber falling to the ground.
The 37-year-old, who had her hair tied up because of the high winds, said: ‘After the woman was hit, everyone started to try and help her. There were people crying and screaming, it was chaos.
‘It (the timber) reminded me a square dining table. The wood looked rotten. It looked like old wood that had been out in the elements for a long time.’
The inquest, being heard in Oldbury, is expected to last for up to five days.