Costa del Sol
UK inquest into British tourist death
By m.p
Jul 25, 2007 - 10:38 AM

An inquest has begun in the UK into the death of a British teenager who died while on holiday in Marbella 10 years ago.

Nineteen year old Andrew Lewin, from Rushden in Hertfordshire died on 29th July 1997 after he spent the entire morning sleeping in a car parked in the full sun.

The UK newspaper, the Royston Crow, says his friends decided to leave him to sober up inside the car when they were unable to rouse him after a night out. They say he was left inside the vehicle for approximately five hours, with all the windows closed, on one of the hottest days of the month.

The Coroner’s Court in Hatfield heard evidence on the first day of the inquest on Tuesday that the rising sun would have created a ‘greenhouse effect’ inside the car, with temperatures possibly reaching as much as 50 degrees Centigrade by midday. Blood tests also showed that the teenager was two and a half times over the legal limit, which, together with heatstroke, was seen as a strong contributory factor in his death.

Further evidence came, according to the report from the Royston Crow, that a post mortem carried out in Spain concluded that Andrew’s death was caused by positional asphyxia.