Lynn King and her husband John died instantly when their silver Ford Mondeo, which also contained their two Dachshund dogs, plunged off a cliff at Alum Bay, Isle of Wight
A bus driver and his frail wife died after their Ford Mondeo plummeted 300ft off a cliff.
John and Lynn King died instantly once their silver vehicle clattered to the ground after going off the ridge at Alum Bay, Isle of Wight on Friday. Lynn was so ill and frail she hadn’t left home for two years, neighbours said.
John was a bus driver for Southern Vectis, an operator on the Isle of Wight, and it is understood he knew the roads across the island well. One local said they saw the couple, thought to have been in their early 70s, just hours before they died.
They told Mail Online: “It’s really sad, I spoke to John a few times. He would always park his car right outside my house. I think I saw his wife maybe twice in the three years they’d been living in the road.
“She wasn’t well. I don’t know exactly what she was suffering from but I think it was serious. John was effectively her carer. I never saw nurses or medically trained staff ever go in. I think he did everything for her.”
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The neighbour said he saw John help Lynn to the car on Friday afternoon. They also had their two dachshunds with them, the friend added. They said: “His wife looked really, really frail. She was hunched over quite badly and was finding it very difficult to walk. I was surprised to see her out of the house.”
Police continue to investigate the deaths and are believed to be searching the couple’s ented terraced home in Cowes, Isle of Wight. Pictures show officers there and at the scene of the crash – at the well-known coastal spot on the west of the island.
Coastguard, police, firefighters and ambulance crews were all deployed and, within minutes, reportedly pulled a man from the wreckage and onto the shore. Response teams were then seen commencing CPR on one of the casualties, according to the Mail Online.
Photographs of the aftermath show the wreckage of the car submerged in the water. With the roof and bonnet crumpled, while coastguard searched around it.
In a statement released on Friday evening, the police said: “We’re currently at the scene of a serious incident in Totland. We were called at 7.21pm this evening after a car, which was being driven along Alum Bay New Road, left the road, came off the clifftop and came to rest in the water below.”
Emergency services rushed to the scene and a winchman was lowered from the coastguard helicopter down to the bottom of the cliff on Friday.