A 20-YEAR-OLD MAN involved in a fatal car crash on the A169 may have lost concentration moments before the incident, an inquest heard.
Marc Dowson, of Whitby, was travelling to Poole, Dorset, with his mother, Sharon, aged 40, on the A169 Pickering to Malton road.
Mrs Dowson died when their Peugeot 306 collided with a Vauxhall Cavalier travelling towards Pickering on Sunday, January 19.
Mr Dowson told the inquest that he could not remember anything after the car swerved close to Howe Bridge.
Vauxhall driver David Newman, of Castlegate, Pickering, was driving home with his five-year-old daughter, Maisie, and girlfriend Chloe Martin.
As he drove over the bridge he saw the Peugeot sliding across the road towards him, he told the inquest yesterday.
"By the time of the impact the passenger side was more or less coming towards my car," he said.
Traffic Constable David Taylor said the Peugeot, which belonged to Mr Dowson's grandmother, was not defective in any way, and that road conditions were only slightly wet after some drizzle.
"I can only suggest that the Peugeot driver has had a lack of concentration when negotiating the right hand bend," he said.
Coroner Michael Oakley recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Updated: 11:22 Thursday, June 12, 2003
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