A HINKLEY Point nuclear power station worker died when he lost control of his car as he drove home from work last December, an inquest heard this week.

Mark Boobyer, aged 44, died at the scene of the head-on crash with a minibus on Hinkley Point Road, near Stogursey.

The crash happened just after 7 pm on December 5 after Mr Boobyer had finished his shift as an operations technician at the Hinkley B station.

Somerset Senior Coroner Samantha Marsh heard how Mr Boobyer was driving his Vauxhall Agila car along Claylands Corner in the direction of Bridgwater just before the accident.

Mrs Marsh was told that for reasons which were unclear from the available evidence, Mr Boobyer then lost control of the vehicle.

His front and rear nearside tyres veered onto a grass verge and Mr Boobyer applied corrective right-hand steering.

However, the correction action caused his car to veer across the central white lines and into the path of a minibus travelling in the opposite direction.

Mrs Marsh was told the minibus driver had no ability to avoid the collision, which injured him and four passengers.

Mr Boobyer, who lived in Taunton, suffered what were described as ‘significant injuries’ as a result of the collision and died at the scene.

Mrs Marsh concluded death was due to a head injury suffered in a road traffic collision.