A DRIVER was killed when his car crashed into a wall and flipped on its side on a back road at Llandygwydd between Cardigan and Newcastle Emlyn, an inquest heard.

Nigel Carl Evans, from Johnstown, Carmarthen, had left his family home on the afternoon of Sunday, September 2, last year to buy a new tyre for his car, the inquest at Aberystwyth Justice Centre was told.

Mr Evans, aged 48, ended up crashing his Volvo into a wall at a crossroads later that afternoon. He died in hospital in Cardiff the following day as a result of chest injuries he received in the crash.

PC Matthew Fraser, a police forensic investigator, told the inquest that the approach to the crossroads was along a 400m straight country lane, but that there were no advance warning signs of the junction ahead and that there were overhanging trees casting shadows.

There was no faults with the car and the road surface was dry at the time of the accident, with no other vehicles involved.

He said evidence showed Mr Evans had ‘braked with sufficient gusto’ to activate the car’s ABS but the car had collided with a wall and then turned on its side with the force of the impact.

“Damage to the vehicle and wall suggests this was not a slow speed collision but not excessive, within the 60mph speed limit. This is a junction that needs approaching with caution. For people not knowing the road, it is not that obvious.

“The primary cause was driver error,” said PC Fraser.

Recording a conclusion of death by misadventure, Ceredigion coroner Peter Brunton said: “This road does not have advance warnings marking the crossroads. Any driver coming from where Mr Evans was coming could easily have been misled.

“He was probably going moderately quickly and at the last minute sees he is approaching the crossroads and braked with gusto but went across the road and collided with the wall. There is no hard evidence to show what happened that day.”