Driver, 87, died after car crash, inquest told

Florence Teresa Goff, 87, of Moorland Road, Newport, died at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on January 2 almost a month after the accident.

She had been driving a blue Honda Jazz on December 8 when it left the road at Brockton Manor as she was heading towards the Red Lion pub roundabout on the A518 at Lilleshall. The car crashed into foliage and small trees and ended up suspended by two branches over a brook.

Mr John Ellery, coroner for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, said the cause of death was bronchopneumonia due to fractures and injuries caused by the crash and concluded Ms Goff died as the result of an accident.

The inquest in Wellington, heard Ms Goff had lost control of the car at a sharp left-hand bend. There were no witnesses to the accident.

Pc Neil Williams, West Mercia Police collision investigator, said in a report read out in court there was no physical evidence the car had hit an animal, another road user or any obstruction. There were no defects to the car or the layout of the road or in the road's surface and there was no evidence Ms Goff lost control due to the speed she was travelling.

He added: "I consider it likely that when negotiating the left curve, she had reduced steering input as the result of an error or incapacitation as a result of the vehicle entering the off-side verge."

Her daughter, Brigitta Goff, told the coroner: "There was no explanation and she could not remember what happened at all. She constantly worried about not being able to remember it."

After the inquest, Ms Goff paid tribute to her mother, saying: "She was known to her friends as being tenacious, independent and fun loving.

"She was going to Edgmond to get her pension and then decided to go and get a bite to eat at the Red House.

"The conclusion was a fair conclusion. Nobody knows what happened, there is no one or nothing to blame She could not remember what happened and nobody else was involved. The investigating officers and the coroner have been wonderful in how they dealt with it."

Ms Goff had been rescued from the car by firefighter crews from Telford Central, Newport and Wellington at about 1pm on December 8. The scene was described by station manager Guy Williams as "one of the most challenging" the teams had ever attended.