A 36-YEAR-old man died on the A44 near Lyonshall after his car strayed onto the other side of the road on a bend.

Martyn White of Radnor Drive, Knighton was driving a Vauxhall Corsa when he collided with a lorry on May 22 at around 7.50pm, on the road between Lyonshall and Pembridge.

Herefordshire Coroner's Court heard Mr White was pronounced dead at the scene after sustaining multiple traumatic injuries.

Jeremy Lamonby told the inquest he was following the lorry when he said "from nowhere" a car appeared around the bend and half way over the white line. The car hit the front driver's side of the lorry.

Lorry driver Paul Humphreys said his lorry would have weighed 41 tonnes at the time.

He said: "As I was going around the bend I did see a car coming towards me. It was on the white line. This happened in a couple of seconds."

He said he applied the brakes hard.

PC Samantha Davies attended the scene and said the road was dry but that the sun was low in the sky. She also noted that Mr White had cigarettes clutched in his left hand.

His wife, Marie, said her husband had been in the army and was medically discharged in 2012 as he had a number of injuries from his time in service.

She said they were living in Leominster and waiting for a place to become available in Knighton.

Coroner Mark Bricknell, who was reading the statement of Mrs White, said there was an element of conversation on his mobile phone at the time Mr White was driving but that there was no confirmation of this.

The lorry's tachograph showed Mr Humphreys was driving 39mph in a 50mph zone and at the point of impact was driving 33mph.

Mr Bricknell said: "The evidence that we have does not provide us with details as to the speed of which Mr White was travelling. There is reference to the use of a mobile phone on occasions but again we cannot necessarily be time specific."

He said there was also reference to cigarettes being held by the deceased and also reference to the sun being low in the sky.

But he said: "All of these matters are speculation. What appears not to be speculation, based on evidence of the accident investigator's enquiries and travelling witnesses was that Mr White has ended up in part on the opposite side of the carriageway when negotiating the bend and collided with the front of an articulated lorry."

He said Mr Humphreys appears blameless as there was nothing he could do to avoid the collision. Mr Bricknell recorded Mr White died as a result of a road traffic collision.