A DRIVER who was killed in a road accident in Wilton wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, an inquest heard.

Father of five Barry Lewis, 51, and his family were travelling home to Little Hampton in West Sussex after a day out at Longleat when their Vauxhall Zafira crossed onto the wrong side of the road and collided head on with a Renault Laguna at Kingway Bridge on August 12 last year.

The inquest at Salisbury Coroner’s Court on Monday heard Mr Lewis suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at Salisbury District Hospital shortly afterwards.

No one else involved in the crash was seriously injured.

In a statement read at the inquest, Alexander Wrigley, a Royal Navy doctor who had been driving behind Mr Bushrod, told the inquest: “I immediately got out and walked to the vehicle. The speed and nature of the impact hadn’t been terribly severe so I wasn’t expecting anyone to be seriously injured.”

He said Mr Lewis was conscious and breathing, but shortly afterwards lost consciousness. Mr Wrigley got him out of the car and carried out CPR until the emergency services arrived.

Mr Lewis’ partner Victoria Humphrey said she had fallen asleep and didn’t know what had caused the car to veer onto the wrong side of the road.

PC Alan Hunt from Wiltshire Police said but there was no evidence of mechanical faults prior to the collision. He said he was unable to find any marks on the driver’s seatbelt that would usually be present if it was being worn when an accident happened, and the steering wheel was pushed upwards and inwards, which indicated the driver was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of impact.

Assistant deputy coroner David Coward said driver error was the overriding factor in the crash and recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mr Lewis’ sister Susan Withers said: “Barry was so different to everyone else. He was very well known in Little Hampton. He was such a lovable rogue and he just stood out.”