Teachers cleared over toboggan death

A girl from Wimbledon who died when she was thrown from a sledge during a school skiing trip to Austria was the victim of "negligent homicide", a coroner's court ruled today.

Nasreen Jamalzadeh, 15, suffered serious head injuries when her toboggan careered off a run and into a tree. She was not wearing a crash helmet and had received no instructions on how to slow the toboggan.

Nasreen, described as a "loving, caring" schoolgirl, died on 20 February last year in an Austrian hospital with her mother at her bedside. Westminster coroner Dr Paul Knapman recorded the verdict of death by negligent homicide. His conclusion was identical to that of an Austrian court, which earlier this year found Albert Schernthaner, the farmer who owned the run, guilty of negligence.

Austrian authorities concluded the farmer had "failed to provide for the safety of the tobogganers", the court heard. He was given a two-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay costs.

But Dr Knapman stressed that no blame should be attached to either the teachers of Ursuline High School, where Nasreen was a pupil, or Club Europe, which organised the trip. He said he had reached the very "unusual conclusion" of following the findings of the Austrian court after spending months looking at the evidence.

Nasreen's friend, Catherine Storey, 16, recalled her last moments in a statement read to the court. Catherine, who was behind Nasreen on the sledge and suffered a broken arm in the incident, said: "We turned one corner, then lost control. There was nothing we could do. It swerved off and hit a mound of snow. Nasreen was thrown into the air and hit a tree. That is all I remember."

In an emotional statement Nasreen's mother, Brenda, said: "She was very happy about the skiing trip. I talked to her the night before the accident and she was very excited." The mother of five added: "We are a very close family and we have lost the soul and life of our family."

The trip was led by PE teacher Sue Forde, a veteran of around 20 school skiing and adventure expeditions. Miss Forde told the court she decided the 80 pupils should start the toboggan run halfway down for safety. She added that helmets were not worn and were not available for pupils. But Miss Forde also refused to blame Club Europe.

She the court: "I felt they were absolutely outstanding, they were faultless in the way they reacted to the incident." She said she and another teacher had tested the entire run and decided against allowing pupils to travel the whole course. "I felt you had to work quite hard to turn the sledge. We decided we did not want the children to do that. The students did not like it, they wanted to do the whole course and have the fun of whizzing down it. We thought it was inappropriate so they started halfway down."

When the accident happened on 19 February last year, 40 pupils had already completed the course safely.

Dr Knapman said: "No criticism can be laid at the feet of anybody in the organisation of the school trip."