A BUS driver sent a text message to his former girlfriend telling her to “say goodbye to his family and friends” before he drove into a bridge abutment at 75mph, an inquest heard.

Trevor Smith, of Goldsmith Close in Bicester, was said to be distressed after the death of his friend Matthew Jones, and the break-up of his four-and-a-half-year relationship with Victoria Thompson within a few weeks.

The pair had bumped into each other at about 3am on Saturday, November 13, last year, after separate nights out in Oxford.

Mr Smith had got into an argument with one of Miss Thompson’s friends.

After he returned home to Bicester by taxi, Mr Smith, 26, continued to call and text Miss Thompson, who is from Didcot.

Shortly before he died he sent her a text message saying: “I didn’t need that right now. Say goodbye to family and friends. Now it’s time to go.”

Det Sgt Craig Kirby, of Bicester CID, told the hearing in Oxford Mr Smith made repeated calls to Miss Thompson, and others, until 6.50am that morning.

He said: “The last phone call made was a telephone message left in the same vein, saying goodbye to family and friends.”

Tests showed Mr Smith, who was not wearing a seat belt when he drove his car into the brick bridge support at the junction of Bucknell Road, and Lord’s Lane in Bicester, was over the alcohol limit for driving. A bottle of whisky was found in the wrecked car.

Det Sgt Kirby said it was unclear whether Mr Smith had drunk the whisky, as the bottle was broken.

Miss Thompson told the hearing: “We recently lost our friend Matthew Jones. Trev was quite upset.”

Mr Jones, of North Hinksey Lane, was pulled from Bullstake Stream in West Oxford on November 9, after being reported missing after a night out two days earlier.

Miss Thompson said: “All of us were not in a good way, because of what happened that week.

“It was everything, the separation, it was what happened to Matthew, it was various things.”

In a statement read to the hearing, witness Karina Ryan, of Isis Avenue, Bicester, told police that a silver Vauxhall Astra car drove past her in Lord’s Lane at about 7am, heading in the opposite direction towards the railway bridge at “excessive speed”.

She said: “It came speeding past me so fast my car actually shook.”

Accident investigator Terry Anderson, of Thames Valley Police, said: “There were no marks on the verge, which suggests the vehicle was air-borne as it hit the wall. It struck the bridge off the ground.”

Mr Smith suffered multiple injuries in the impact and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict that Mr Smith took his own life.