A LORRY driver involved in a crash which killed a pensioner had fallen unconscious at the wheel following months of illness.

An inquest into the death of Patricia ‘Jenny’ Cresswell, 70, in Northallerton last Wednesday, heard lorry driver David Taylor drove into the path of Mrs Cresswell’s car on the A19 near Easingwold on March 2, 2017.

Coroner Richard Watson heard Mr Taylor had been delivering liquid fertiliser in a Scania lorry from Grafton, near Boroughbridge, to Moxey Grange, near Easingwold, and was on his return to Grafton at around 9.20am when the crash happened.

Mrs Cresswell, from Northallerton, had been travelling to York and was near the Husthwaite junction when the lorry hit her car.

Mr Taylor said he had been suffering from a chesty cough for the last five months, and had recently had pneumonia. He was still on steroids, antibiotics, and had an inhaler.

He said: “I ate a sandwich in the morning and had a Twix chocolate bar in the cab.

“I was driving back on the A19 northbound and had a bite of the Twix which was in arm’s distance, while I was driving.

“I passed a junction when I started coughing – the next thing I knew I was on my side and everything had fallen to the side.

“I had lost my glasses and there was someone at the windscreen trying to get me out.”

Witnesses described the moment the lorry veered across the single carriageway straight into the path of Mrs Cresswell’s grey Toyota Avensis as being a smooth motion.

Stephen Kirkbright, collision investigator for North Yorkshire Police, told the inquest he believed Mr Taylor had lost consciousness before the crash.

He said: “In our reconstruction, using the same kind of Scania lorry and with both feet taken off the pedals and hands off the steering wheel at 50mph, 200m from the impact, we found the vehicle took the exact same route as Mr Taylor’s.

“There were two possibilities – that Mr Taylor was distracted, or he was unconscious.”

Mr Watson said: “Even a driver dreadfully distracted would have come back to reality being in imminent danger.

“Having heard the evidence I have come to the conclusion that he was unconscious, causing a collision.”

Coroner Richard Watson gave a conclusion of accidental death.