A coroner has ruled that a father was unlawfully killed after being struck by a speeding driver. Pete D'Arcy, 57, died when his Volkswagen T-Roc was hit by an Audi A4 driven by Robbie Kenneth Diffey, 24, on December 13, 2025.
Diffey also died at the scene. He was traveling at 92 mph under the influence of drugs and alcohol and swerved onto Mr. D'Arcy's side of the road before the collision. Two months earlier, police had stopped Diffey for driving under the influence of cannabis. Dorset Police recommended revoking his license, but the revocation occurred only days after the tragedy.
At an inquest on May 28, 2026, Coroner Rachael Griffin ruled that Mr. D'Arcy was unlawfully killed. His widow, Louise, stated that the crash could have been avoided. The incident has left two of her three children, Lucy, 24, and Jack, 17, struggling with driving.
Louise, a carer from Salisbury, Wiltshire, said: "The other driver was recording it, and he was going nearly 100 mph. He was on Pete's side of the road, and the worst part is he had been stopped weeks before for drug driving. He didn't have his license taken away, and he was waiting to be banned."
She added: "I knew it wasn't Pete's fault. I've known him for 25 years. He had never had an accident and drove across the country daily for work. My 17-year-old doesn't want to drive now because of this. My daughter passed her test last year, and she doesn't want to drive either."
Louise and Pete had separated three years before the crash. Pete had dropped their son at home just minutes before the accident. She recalled: "The police came around half 10 in the evening. You get a knock on the door and see two policemen, but it didn't enter my head that I'd be in that situation. We were told what happened, but they couldn't give details at the time."
The inquest heard that an open bottle of Peroni was found between Diffey's legs after the crash. Police also discovered a Snapchat video showing Mr. D'Arcy flashing his lights a second before impact. Coroner Griffin described Diffey's driving as "audacious and abhorrent."
Reacting to the inquest, Louise said the crash could have been prevented: "It was really upsetting. It could have been prevented if the police had more power to take licenses off him when he was stopped. He was stopped on October 25, and they didn't get the blood test result until December 24. The crash was on the 13th. They need more powers and to speed up the process."
