Distraction led to fatal smash

A retired businessman and his wife were killed in a head-on crash near Wombourne after an overtaking car distracted an oncoming driver, an inquest heard. Pensioners Joseph and Kathleen Robins were on their way back from a karaoke party.

Staffordshire South coroner Andrew Haigh said the couple, who died within an hour of the smash, were "completely blameless". The hearing in Cannock yesterday was told that the couple were travelling in their Fiat Punto when it collided with a Peugeot 206 on the B4176 Bridgnorth Road.

Mr Haigh recorded verdicts of accidental death following the crash on January 20 last year.

The couple, of Stourton, near Stourbridge, had been married for 57 years and Mr Robins ran a successful timber business, Robins Timber, based in Brierley Hill.

The driver of the silver Peugeot was Michelle Panter, a chef returning to her home in Waterdale, Wombourne, from her job at the Red Lion in Bobbington.

She told the hearing: "I was confronted by two sets of headlights. It appeared to be a car overtaking another car. The overtaking car was fully on my side of the road. I didn't have any way out."

Miss Panter suffered leg injuries and was in hospital for six weeks.

The driver of the overtaking car, Ross Terry from Lilleshall, said he safely completed his manoeuvre before the smash. He told the inquest he was driving a Suzuki Wagon R belonging to his grandmother and had been heading home.

"I was only driving at 25 to 30 miles an hour because the car in front was driving exceptionally slow", he said.

He said that after overtaking, he noticed the Robins' car was no longer behind him and stopped to check before calling 999.

Paramedics tried to revive Mr and Mrs Robins, aged 79 and 76 respectively, but they were pronounced dead at hospital.