A man found dead in his van in a layby died due to carbon monoxide poisoning, an inquest heard this week.

Michail Androsiuk, aged 59 from Lithuania died on December 11 last year on the A4130 between Didcot and Milton.

The inquest heard that Mr Androsiuk was killed while he slept from toxic gases emanating from the van’s heating system.

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The lorry driver had come to the UK the day before to find work and was living out of his blue ford transit van, an inquest held at Oxford Coroner's Court heard on Tuesday morning. 

His body was discovered by two friends who had stopped to talk to Mr Androsiuk after they recognised his vehicle.

They called emergency services after they found the 59-year-old unresponsive and could smell gas coming from the van.

Fire officers and paramedics attended the scene, but the lorry driver was pronounced dead at around 2.40pm.

The inquest heard that Mr Androsiuk’s cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning and the levels found in his blood were well above fatal levels.

Oxford Mail:

Oxfordshire’s head coroner Darren Salter said that the gas most likely came from the van’s heating system which Mr Androsiuk was using to keep warm.

Temperatures on the night of December 10 to 11 were reported to have been below zero.

Mr Androsiuk’s daughter told police that her father was a “happy man with no worries” and that he had contacted her mother the day before his death to say he would be returning to Lithuania.

She added that he was “thrifty and economical” and believed what happened to her father was an accident.

Despite police initially believing the death may have been a chemical suicide, the inquest heard that Mr Androsiuk had no history of suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts.

Mr Salter concluded that the death was accident.

He told Oxford Coroner’s Court: “There is no evidence of an intent to end his life.

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“This does seem to be an accidental death due to a gas leak from the heating system in his van.”

Mr Salter stated in the record of inquest: “Michail Androsiuk died in a layby on the A4130.

“He was a lorry driver who appeared to be residing in his van.

“The cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.

“He was living in his transit van which had gas heating and overnight on December 10 to 11 the van was parked in a layby alongside the A4130 Milton Link Road where Michail Androsiuk died due to carbon monoxide poisoning from the gas heating system which had been installed.”