A MOTORIST who died in a head-on smash at an accident blackspot may have caused the crash by trying to light a cigarette, an inquest heard.

Former shopkeeper and mill worker Jean Barnes was killed in a smash with another car on May 21, when the car she was driving swerved over the central line.

Her car clipped the back wheel of an oncoming van and smashed head-on into a Volvo on the A56 at Foulridge.

Miss Barnes, of Hollins Road, Barnoldswick, was found holding an unlit cigarette in her left hand when the police reached her, which they believe she had been trying to light.

She was airlifted by air ambulance to Royal Preston Hospital but died less than two hours later.

Her uncle Jack Alton, of Blakeley Crescent, and cousin, Roy Lucas, of Valley Drive, Barnoldswick, made statements confirming she had been depressed and was receiving medication.

But East Lancashire coroner David Smith said the cause of Miss Barnes death was the multiple injuries she suffered in the crash and there was no question of her trying to take her own life. Driver of the Volvo, 81-year-old Harry Manning, of Colne Road, Sough, Earby, was airlifted to Airedale General Hospital, with broken legs, a broken arm and fractured pelvis.

PC Tony King told the hearing how Miss Barnes' Vauxhall Nova was straddled across the centre line at a 45 degree angle, with the front end pointing towards Salterforth.

He said there was slight damage to the rear wheel of the Ford Transit van, driven by Julie Swales, of Swaledale Farm, Wheatley Lane Road, Nelson, and described how the Volvo ended up on the grass verge facing Earby.

He added: "I think there was something that distracted Miss Barnes, causing her to swerve in to the other lane and hit the Transit Van and then the Volvo."

Mrs Swales said the Nova had been travelling at a normal speed for the road and she did not notice anything wrong with the vehicle.

She said: "I heard a bang as it went past me like the sound of a wing mirror being clipped then when I looked in my mirror it looked like the cars were spinning round in the road behind me."

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