An inquest has revealed that a mother and her young son died in a tragic car accident on September 3, last year. The bodies of Milan Peter Radocz and his mum Vivien Radocz, 28, were not discovered until seven hours after their car left a country road, plunged into a pond and flipped upside down, trapping them both.
The accident occurred while they were driving to a film on a minor road near Wittering, Cambs. Neither of them managed to escape from the vehicle found upside down underwater the same evening.
The 2010 blue Ford Focus crashed through a chain-link fence, spun off the road, and plunged into the pond at around 10.35 am. A fisherman discovered the submerged car seven hours later but did not realise anyone was still in it. It was only when the emergency services arrived that they discovered the mother and son were trapped inside.
The fire officer had to break through the passenger window to access the car and found a child’s foot. Milan was rushed to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead at 7.44 pm.
Vivien was found without her seatbelt on, and the coroner recorded Milan’s death as drowning. CCTV footage showed that they left Wittering at 10.31 am in the car. The forensic collision investigation found that Vivien had steered an “incorrect course” around the sharp bend in the country road, but why she did so was unclear.
The toxicology report showed that there was no alcohol or drugs in her system at the time of the crash.
PC Sean Redman’s report stated that her unfamiliarity with the road, distraction, inattention, or a combination of these, could be the most likely factors in the collision. Her family told a liaison officer that Vivien would avoid unknown roads and use a SatNav to get around, but there was no evidence of her using a phone at the time of the crash.
Fisherman and RAF officer John Smith arrived at the pond at 5.30 pm that day to do some fishing and didn’t notice anything was wrong until 20 minutes later. He called the guards of the RAF Wittering air force base, which the pond belonged to, and they arrived 20 minutes after. The guards then called the emergency services at 18.20.
A previous crash at the site in 2019 saw a silver vehicle plunge into the pond after a traffic collision, but no one was injured.
Coroner Simon Milburn passed on his condolences to the family and acknowledged the extent of their grief at the loss of such a young child. The family of Vivien and Milan have since repatriated to Hungary and have not issued a statement.
»Mother and her young son die in a tragic car accident«
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