Mother and pregnant daughter drown after car crashes in 'utter catastrophe'

A mother and her pregnant daughter died after the car they were in crashed and ended up upside down in a water-filled ditch, an inquest has heard.

Marion Bunyan, 54, and her daughter Jennifer Bunyan, 24, both died after the car careered into the ditch in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire on the morning of Sunday, 7 June.

Emergency services raced to the scene but Marion and Jennifer were pronounced dead at the scene.

Jennifer’s unborn daughter, named Erin Chatten, with her fiancé David Chatten, also died.

In a previous tribute, Jennifer’s father and Marion’s husband Paul Bunyan, said his daughter had worked as a school librarian until becoming a full-time mother to Oliver, who is nearly three.

Opening an inquest into the deaths, senior coroner David Heming described the crash as an “utter catastrophe”.

He told the inquest that a post-mortem examination and CT scan for Marion Bunyan suggested her provisional cause of death was drowning, but stressed it was only provisional.

He said the results of a post-mortem on Jennifer were still awaited.

“For Erin, she was the baby daughter of Jennifer and was delivered at Addenbrooke's [Hospital] on June 11 2020,” he said.

“Erin Chatten was 30 weeks gestation and the death of her mother led to her death also.”

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He added: “This was an utter catastrophe. There are no words I can express that will alleviate the devastating loss for both Mr Chatten and Mr Bunyan.”

The coroner also thanked staff at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, commending their “utter professionalism” and “continuing enormous support” to the family.

A pre-inquest review hearing will be held at 10am on Friday, August 21 2020.