A LORRY driver whose car killed a 20-year-old woman, later failed an eyesight test.

Neil Saunders, aged 46, of Worcester, was driving along Windermere Drive when his car was in collision with Hannah Beckett-Stevens.

An inquest heard yesterday that the student, of Longfellow Road, Perdiswell, Worcester, died of a severe head injury six days after she was knocked down by the blue Fiat Bravo at about 6.25pm on Friday, October 27.

Saunders failed an eyesight test in February this year and is now due before the city's magistrates charged with careless driving. He will appear in the next three weeks.

Following the eye test, he has to wear glasses while driving.

The inquest report revealed Saunders has been a lorry driver for 29 years and had held a HGV Class 1 licence since 1981.

Meanwhile, evidence given to the inquest by a policeman and one of Beckett-Steven's friends suggests she had been drinking, although Worcestershire coroner Victor Round could not confirm this because no blood test was taken at the time of the crash.

Mr Round said: "She was one or two feet from the kerb when she was struck by the Fiat Bravo driven by Mr Saunders."

He said the road was not to blame for the incident, while witness accounts suggested Saunders failed to take evasive action immediately before the collision. Despite this, the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

After the inquest, calls were renewed to install a pedestrian crossing on a stretch of road where Miss Beckett-Stevens, a student died.

Warndon councillors John Buckley and Pamela Clayton have been campaigning for a crossing on Windermere Drive, opposite the Sainsbury's store, for nearly seven years.

They say Worcestershire County Council will not pay for it because Sainsbury's has agreed to build a crossing as a part of the proposed development of a new store on the old Archdales site nearby.

Coun Buckley said he will ask the county council to make the installation of a crossing a priority following the inquest. Miss Beckett-Stevens is thought to be the first person killed on Windermere Drive in recent years, although there have been a number of collisions and near misses.

Coun Buckley now wants action to be taken to ensure another death does not occur on the road.

"At the next full council meeting I will be resubmitting this and asking the council to make it an absolute priority," he said.

"It's on the list and has been accepted as an area that needs a pedestrian crossing for six years. Everybody accepts there's a need for safer routes to the school Elgar Technology College and the store. It's just waiting for Sainsbury's.

"Sainsbury's agreed to pay for this as a part of their safer environment for shoppers to use their new store so there's no chance of putting any money into this until Sainsbury's decides."

However, the Worcester News can reveal that a new crossing will go up in Windermere Drive once Sainsbury's signs an agreement to pay for it.

A Sainsbury's spokesman said: "It has been resolved and hopefully we can get it to the council by summer."