Couple died with their two dogs when their car plummeted 300ft off Isle of Wight cliff

Two people killed when their car went over the edge of a cliff on the Isle of Wight at the weekend were a bus driver and his frail wife, neighbours have said.

The couple, named locally as John and Lynne King, died when their silver Ford Mondeo plunged 300ft from atop the rock face close to the Needles late on Friday. Their two Dachshund dogs were also in the car with them.

Neighbours said John was a bus driver who knew the area and its roads ‘like the back of his hand’ and ‘doted on his wife’, who was described as ‘really, really frail’.

One said recalled seeing him helping his wife into the car with the dogs on Friday afternoon, saying: ‘That was the last time I saw them. They never came home.’

The neighbour described seeing John regularly but reported only seeing Lynne ‘maybe twice in the three years they’d been living in the road’.

‘She wasn’t well. I don’t know exactly what she was suffering from but I think it was serious. John was effectively her carer. I never saw nurses or medically trained staff ever go in. I think he did everything for her,’ they told MailOnline.

In hindsight, they said the crash ‘may have been planned’, recalling how John cut the grass ‘for the first time in three years’ days before he died, adding: ‘To me, he seemed like he was getting things in order.

‘Then on Friday he took his wife and dogs out in the car – which he never did before – and that was the last we saw of them.’

Police, firefighters, paramedics and coastguards all attended the scene.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police said: ‘We can confirm the death of two people, a woman and a man aged 66 and 67 respectively, following an incident at The Needles on the Isle of Wight on Friday, June 6.

‘We were called at 7.21pm after a Ford Mondeo, which was being driven along Alum Bay New Road, left the road, came off the cliff top and came to rest in the water below. Two dogs, both Dachshund’s, were also in the car and died in the incident.

‘Formal identification procedures are ongoing, but next of kin have been notified. A Post-Mortem examination will take place on Tuesday 10 June.

‘As part of the ongoing investigation into the incident, which has been referred to the Coroner, officers have been carrying out enquiries at an address on Arctic Road, Cowes to help them to establish what happened.’

Police said the vehicle had been driving along the road that leads to The Needles, one of Britain’s best-known coastal spots.

The world-famous Isle of Wight Needles is a row of three stacks of chalk that rise about 30 metres above the water.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.