Presenter Phil Spencer’s parents died after car plunged off bridge into river, inquest told

Presenter Phil Spencer's parents tragically passed away in August after their car plunged into a river. Photo / IWC MEDIA / Channel 4

Months after Location, Location, Location star Phil Spencer’s parents tragically passed away, an inquest has revealed their causes of death, the Telegraph reports.

At approximately 12.20pm on August 18, Anne, 82 and Richard Spencer, 89, were on their way to lunch. Anne was driving the car, while Richard sat in the passenger seat and their live-in-carer sat in the back seat. Everything was fine as Anne drove down a private lane. However, tragedy soon struck as she accidentally drove off a bridge, resulting in the vehicle striking the bottom of the Nailbourne River where it “overturned”.

The live-in-carer was able to get out of the car and call for help. However, for 20 minutes, the Toyota car and the Spencers remained in the river. By 12.57pm paramedics arrived on the scene and pulled the couple out before rushing them to hospital in Margate. Both were pronounced dead soon after the ordeal.

In a previous hearing it was revealed Richard Spencer - who was battling dementia at the time of his death - died from a lung injury called aspiration pneumonitis. The most recent hearing has now revealed Anne Spencer’s cause of death which was aspiration pneumonia, hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury and near drowning.

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A post shared by Phil Spencer (@philspencertv)

Aspiration pneumonia is an infection of the lungs caused by inhaling food or liquid while hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury is caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Anne Spencer was also battling Parkinson’s at the time of her death.

The Location, Location, Location star received an outpouring of support when the news first came out, and a week after their deaths he shared a bittersweet post on his Instagram account confessing his mother had long believed she and her husband would “go together” and he thinks they “would have held hands underwater and quietly slipped away”.

Sharing a lengthy post on the social media platform, the TV star said the fact his parents will never have to “mourn the loss of the other one” is a “blessing”.

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A post shared by Phil Spencer (@philspencertv)

“As a family, we are all trying to hold on to the fact Mum and Dad went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one, which is a blessing in itself,” he wrote.

“Although they were both on extremely good form in the days before (hence the sudden idea to go out to lunch), Mum’s Parkinson’s and Dad’s dementia had been worsening and the long-term future was set to be a challenge. So much so that Mum said to me only a week ago that she had resigned to thinking, ‘Now it looks like we will probably go together’. And so they did.

“That was what God had planned for them – and it was a good plan.”

David and Anne Spencer had four children and eight grandchildren.