Tom Collier inquest: Parents pay tribute to Sheffield footballer who died after 'biggest mistake of his life'

Tom Collier, who lived in Totley with his parents, Jon and Sara, and his younger siblings, Joe and Evie, tragically died after losing control of his car and hitting a wall on Shepcote Lane between Darnall and Tinsley. The young engineer, who was a much-loved member of the Sheffield & District Fair Play League side Hammer and Pincers FC, had been on his way to a match when he crashed on the morning of February 5, 2022.

Tributes poured in after his death, with friends describing him as a ‘wonderful human being’ who was ‘kind, gentle and always smiling’. Nearly £24,000 was donated to a fundraising campaign launched in his memory. Tom was a Sheffield United season ticket holder, and home and away fans joined a minute's applause for him at Bramall Lane when the Blades took on Swansea City last February.

An inquest held at Sheffield Coroner’s Court on Monday, January 23, heard how Mr Collier had been under the influence of alcohol and cocaine, and evidence suggested he had been travelling at around 80mph – twice the 40mph limit on that stretch of road – in the moments leading up to the collision. The court was told how he was driving a Peugeot 206 when, according to evidence from a forensic collision investigator, the car had struck the kerb of the dual carriageway causing it to flip onto its side and slide into the wall.

PC Peter Butler, the investigating officer, described how a witness working at a nearby car lot reported hearing a loud ‘screeching’ sound and turning round to see the Peugeot hit the wall, sending bricks and other debris flying, from which he had to take cover behind vehicles in the lot. The court heard how Mr Collier was the only person in the Peugeot and no other vehicles were believed to have been involved.

Mr Collier’s heartbroken parents, Jon and Sara, told the court how Tom was still living with them at the time of his death, along with his younger brother Joe, aged 22, and his sister Evie, 19. They described themselves as a ‘very close family’, who had been on holiday together, and they said all three children were ‘happy doing what they were doing’.

“Obviously something like this isn’t what happens to what we class people in our world,” they said. “It's just devastated us as a family and the whole of the wider family. It’s something we will never get over but we will carry on for each other. We’re a strong family but this has obviously been very difficult for us all for the last year.”

They said that whatever the outcome of the inquest ‘we’ve still lost our boy’. “We need to carry on for each other,” they continued. “We loved him dearly. He’s made the biggest mistake of his life by the sound of it.”

Tom’s mother told the court he had gone out the night before the crash and stayed at his girlfriend’s home afterwards, before driving to football that morning, and she was convinced he had consumed the drugs and alcohol that night rather than in the morning. She said: “I know he wouldn't have got up and physically had a drink or taken drugs before getting in that car.”

Assistant coroner Stephen Eccleston concluded that Mr Collier had been travelling at ‘excess speed’ while ‘under the influence’ of cocaine and alcohol, which had ‘impaired his judgement in driving’, that morning. He recorded Mr Collier’s death as being alcohol and drug-related.