THE death of a woman whose car went across a junction and into the path of a HGV lorry was accidental, an inquest was told.

Christine Guise, from Saxonbury, Evesham, died on the B4084 at Cropthorne on the morning of November 6 from multiple injuries.

Worcestershire Coroner Geraint Williams told the inquest that the 64-year-old retired NHS worker drove through the give-way line at Brook Lane and hit a HGV lorry driven by Darren Jones.

Mr Jones said he had left Strickland’s when he was tra-velling down the B4084 and noticed the T-junction was clear but, as he came upon it, Mrs Guise’s blue Toyota Yaris came straight across.

“It was going pretty fast and I thought it was not going to stop when I noticed it coming toward me. I realised she wasn’t going to stop and that’s when I put the brakes on and hit the car’s two doors.”

In a police statement, he said Mrs Guise had been staring at the steering wheel.

“She was looking slightly down and not focused on anything, she never looked up the road and I never saw her looking at me.”

Mr Jones, who escaped injury but was left dazed from the accident, along with other witnesses, attempted to open Mrs Guise’s door which was locked.

His tachograph showed he had been travelling at 39mph on the 40mph road and both cars were in perfect working order.

Tests could not find any evidence her indicators were illuminated and PC Graham Powell, collision investigator, said the only oddity was that the car had been in third gear.

Company director Darren Bunn was travelling one car behind the lorry when he witnessed a blue car approaching the junction without slowing down.

He said: “It was virtually directly in front of the lorry with little space between and, from what I could see, the lorry didn’t have time to brake and it was braking as it hit the vehicle.”

The post-mortem report found there was no medical emergency or natural disease such as stroke or heart attack which would have caused the accident. She was not under the influence of drink or drugs but therapeutic levels of the anti-depressant Citalo-pram were found.

Summing up, Mr Williams said: “Mr Jones in no way caused or was responsible for the crash. He was driving perfectly properly and res-ponsibly.

“Given what I have heard, it’s quite clear Mrs Guise was driving her vehicle quite deliberately when it went through the junction which led to the crash. Therefore I find she died as a result of accidental death.”