A WOMAN died when a “momentary aberration” led her to cross a busy road without looking.

Joy Greenway was hit by a van as she crossed the road outside her home at Pebble Hill caravan park, Radley, an inquest in Oxford heard yesterday.

The 63-year-old mother of three was trying to get on a waiting bus, the inquest was told.

Richard Franklin’s Mercedes Vito hit Miss Greenway at about 4.30pm on February 13 in the 30mph zone. She died in hospital on March 2.

The van driver was likely to be travelling “at the lower end” of a 29-to-39mph bracket according to collision investigator Pc Daniel Henderson.

Mr Franklin said: “I think the bus attempted to pull away so the woman turned to cross the road.

“I hesitated when I saw her. She suddenly turned and she didn’t look. I jammed on my brakes and I just hit her.”

Pc Henderson said Miss Greenway would have had seven seconds in which to notice the van, describing it as “ample time to cross”.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: “I think there’s only one conclusion I can draw, and that is that it was an accident. It would be unnatural not to hurry a little, even if she knew the bus was stopping for her, and she was perhaps a little less careful than she might otherwise be.”

Mr Gardiner added: “It was a momentary aberration which tragically had very serious consequences.”