Cause of Death, by Peter Morford

For two miles the winding road to the village runs in a cutting beneath fields and woods. Locals who know the hazards drive slowly and carefully, noting  the few places  where two cars could 

pass each other.  In the early mornings you might see the road-kills; hedgehogs, rabbits, the occasional badger or fox and, sadly, someone’s pet cat. Soon, tyres and crows will have destroyed the evidence.

            One evening Judy Vance was driving her husband Harry from the station. They were chatting about his day’s work; her lunch with the W. I.

            “Look out,” he roared.  “Stop the car.”

            Before she had time to think, Judy braked, and felt a slight bump under the wheels. Harry was screaming now. There was a second lesser feeling from the rear wheels.  He screamed again and she saw him straining forward, his face red, choking, running his hands frantically over chest and head.

            She switched the engine off and tried to comfort him as he fell slowly forward, his head against the dashboard. He was too heavy for her to move him back in his seat. Knowing she could do nothing for him, she phoned 999 and waited.

            The ambulance was quick; four minutes.  Two paramedics soon had Harry on a stretcher. Judy watched in horror as they gave him an injection then reached for the defibrillator. Then the Police arrived and an officer put up the red triangles to protect the area then returned to get the car out of the way. Within five minutes the ambulance left, taking them both to the hospital.

            Harry was dead on arrival.

            The post-mortem report stated that Harry Vance had been a healthy man with no known medical problems and no cause of death could be established. In the black humour of his profession the pathologist said privately that Mr Vance was the healthiest corpse he had ever seen. Despite the reported screams and signs of deep distress he had suffered neither stroke nor heart attack.  All his vital organs were healthy and in fact, in another bout of medical humour, he was the ideal organ donor.

            The Inquest recorded “Death by unknown cause, and there were no suspicious circumstances.” The Coroner noted Mrs Vance’s statement that she had stopped the car to save an animal, that as she had been travelling at less than 20 mph the airbags had not deployed.

            Nobody could have told the Inquest that as the wheels crushed the rabbit Harry had felt his own pelvis snap and stomach implode under the infinite weight of the front wheel. Then an eternal second later the rear wheel pressed sternum against spine, bursting the lungs… and then his head, reduced to a disc.

            Empathy killed Harry Vance.