A DRIVER who died in an early morning head-on crash on the A39 in West Somerset last summer had drifted onto the wrong side of the road as he rounded a bend, an inquest heard.

Airport security worker Barry Hammond suffered multiple injuries and died at the scene, between between Fiddington and Cannington.

Mr Hammond had been driving his Peugeot 107 car toward his home in Longstone Close, Nether Stowey, shortly after 6.30am on Monday, August 7, when he collided with a livestock lorry travelling in the opposite direction.

The fatal crash happened just 24 hours before Somerset Council was due to start what it described as ‘urgent repairs’ to the A39 road surface between Nether Stowey and Cannington.

Contractors had been scheduled to begin surface dressing work on Tuesday, August 8, for up to three days.

Somerset assistant coroner Stephen Covell, sitting in the Old Municipal Buildings, Taunton, said: “As the deceased negotiated a left hand bend his vehicle crossed over the centre of the road into the eastbound carriageway into collision with an oncoming heavy goods vehicle.

“The deceased’s vehicle was extensively damaged and the deceased sustained multiple injuries and died at the scene.”

Paramedics tried unsuccessfully to save Mr Hammond, aged 69, but he died of multiple traumatic injuries at the crash site, near Cannington.

No reason was given for Mr Hammond’s vehicle crossing the central road markings into the opposite carriageway.

Bristol-born Mr Hammond left a wife Julie, daughter Kimberley, and grandchildren Ellis and Millie.