A PENSIONER was killed when she drove her mobility scooter in front of a teenager’s car, an inquest was told.

Student Christopher John Cole, 18, passed his driving test a month before Doreen Jane Bath, 78, drove her mobility scooter in front of his Vauxhall Corsa in Preston Road, Weymouth.

West Dorset Coroner Michael Johnston told an inquest in Dorchester the collision was probably ‘unavoidable’.

He said that Mr Cole probably would not have been able to see Mrs Bath behind bollards in the middle of the road and would not have know she was going to pull out.

A tearful Mr Cole, of Crossways, told the inquest he was driving home from Weymouth College at 4.30pm on December 5 last year as he did every day and so he knew the road.

He said it was dark but he had his side lights on, was perfectly visible and driving at just below 30 miles per hour.

He said: “I saw absolutely nothing.

“I just remember my air bag going off and the screen cracked.

“It was like a dream where everything went really slow.”

Witness Barry John Thorne said he was driving in the opposite direction and could see a pedestrian – Mrs Bath’s husband – but nobody else and said Mr Cole’s car was ‘plainly visible’.

He said the collision was ‘almost instantaneous’ and the scooter disintegrated.

Mrs Bath’s husband, Charles Bath, 81, said they bought a caravan at Weymouth Bay Holiday Park three years ago and visited regularly, renting it out when they were at home in Bulkington, near Devizes.

He said they were on their way to the Spar shop to buy milk and food and were waiting to cross from the crossing point in the centre of the road when Mrs Bath drove out.

Mr Johnston recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He said he suspected Mrs Bath went across the road when Mr Cole was so close that an impact was unavoidable and she died instantly of multiple injuries.

He said: “Given what has happened I would like to say it was a culmination of bad luck, which is the only word I could think of.”

He said Mr Cole’s lack of experience as a driver had no part in the collision and ‘it was the wrong place at the wrong time’.

He told Mr Cole as far as he could tell he did not do anything wrong.

Speaking after the inquest, Mr Bath said: “I knew her for the best part of 70 years because we were kids who grew up together in the same village.

“We came to Weymouth because she liked to see the water.

“I’m happy that she is not suffering.”