THE daughter of a 79-year-old woman killed in a two-car crash on the A420 apologised to the other motorist for her mother’s inattention.

The inquest into the death of grandmother Pamela Davenport heard she pulled out into the path of another car at Longworth on July 10 last year.

William Cox was travelling on the A420 westbound when Mrs Davenport pulled out of Longworth Road.

Mr Cox told Thursday’s hearing at Oxfordshire Coroner’s Court that he could not react in time to avoid her Audi A3.

A crash investigator said Mr Cox, who suffered cuts and bruises, was not speeding. He estimated the speed of impact at 57mph.

After Mr Cox’s evidence, Mrs Davenport’s daughter Harriet Fairbank told him: “I think it’s just an unfortunate thing and I apologise on my mother’s behalf.

“You’ve got to live with this and it’s not easy.”

Pathologist Dr Ian Roberts said Mrs Davenport died instantly from multiple injuries.

Mr Cox said he saw two cars at the junction he was approaching, and pulled into the outside lane of the dual carriageway. He assumed they would both enter the road and continue in the same direction as him.

He said another car in the inside lane, which passed the junction just before the crash, could have impeded Mrs Davenport’s view.

It was suggested Mrs Davenport could have mistaken Mr Cox’s move to the outside lane as a signal that he was going to perform a U-turn or cut across the oncoming lane at the junction.

Mr Cox’s indicators were not activated and deputy coroner Alison Thompson said it was impossible to know what Mrs Davenport was thinking.

Mrs Thompson said: “I believe that the highest probability is that she simply wasn’t aware of him because there was another car at that junction and she pulled out because she thought she was in no danger.”

Mrs Davenport, of Old Well Cottage, Hinton Waldrist, was described at the time of her death as “an efficacious granny who never sat still for one moment”.

Mrs Thompson recorded a verdict of accidental death.

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