A death-wish driver wiped out a young family on their holiday when he “deliberately” ploughed head-on into their car, an inquest heard.
Crazed cabbie Marek Wojiechowski, 26, left a four-page suicide note after splitting up with his wife and then got behind the wheel of his Vauxhall Vectra.
Police were alerted by his wife and they started following him with their blue lights and siren on but Wojiechowski crashed into a family of Irish holidaymakers.
Horrified witnesses said he drove straight into the path of a VW Golf containing Con Twomey, 39, his pregnant wife Elber, 36, and their 16-month-old son Oisin.
Little Oisin was killed immediately, Elber survived but lost her unborn daughter and her husband suffered serious brain injuries and died ten months later.
The tragedy in Torquay in July 2012 came on the last day of the family’s summer holiday to Devon.
An inquest heard hjow Polish-born Wojiechowski has agreed to split with his wife Agnieszka and left a four-page suicide note.
She raised the alarm when she found the letter and a police squad car spotted the Polish cabbie in his vehicle.
Jurors heard that the officers put on their flashing blue lights and siren and gave chase.
But instead of stopping, witnesses say Wojiechowski sped toward a junction and drove straight at the Twomeys car making into “impossible” for them to avoid him.
Driver John Onions said he still suffered flashbacks after letting the Twomeys’ Golf pull out in front of him at a roundabout and into Wojiechowski’s path.
Describing the collision, Mr Onions told the inquest in Torquay: “It was amazing. It was like as if something went completely wrong.
“It just took off. It came down, turned its steering wheel and just went straight across into the car in front of me.
“It sounds awful now, but the crash looked deliberate. It decided to accelerate and go straight across the road. The image was that the Vectra seemed to shoot straight across.
“It was impossible for them to do anything. The oncoming car decided to turn and go straight into it. It’s as simple as that.”
Mr Onions said he still suffered flashbacks from the horror smash.
He added: “It dawned on me afterwards that if I hadn’t let them in at the bottom, it would have been me.”
Wojiechowski was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital but died from his injuries later that day.
The inquest heard his suicide note said he did not blame his wife for their split and that he loved their two children.
Wojiechowski, a former chef and kitchen porter, had recently got a job as a taxi driver working six nights a week after they got into financial difficulties.
Interviewed by police a week after her husband’s death, Mrs Wojiechowski, a housekeeper, blamed herself for the accident.
She told officers, through a Polish interpreter: “Marek wasn’t coping well. He didn’t kill himself – I killed him.
“I took hope away from him. I took everything away from him.”
Mr Twomey was transported back to a hospital near his native Cork in Ireland but died in May this year.
It is understood his wife Elber is making a slow recovery and is now out of hospital.
She visited her husband’s bedside on a daily basis before his death.
The inquests now underway are into the deaths of toddler Oisin and Wojiechowski.
A jury of 10 people were sworn in by coroner Ian Arrow and the hearing is expected to finish later today.
