A TEENAGE driver answered her mobile phone shortly before a head-on collision in which she died, an inquest was told.

Student Grace Emma Selby, 18, died on her way to Kingston Maurward College for a trip when her Renault Clio collided with a delivery van on the A354 near Milborne St Andrew.

West Dorset Coroner Michael Johnston said she was running late when her car went on to the wrong side of the road and hit a Renault Master panel van.

Mr Johnston recorded a verdict of accidental death at the inquest of Miss Selby, of Twyford, near Shaftesbury.

The inquest was told that the injured delivery driver managed to escape his vehicle before both cars were gutted by fire.

Mr Johnston said a lecturer asked a friend from Miss Selby’s agriculture course to phone her to see if she was going on their trip to the Royal Smithfield show at the Royal Bath and West Showground.

He said Jake Gale, a fellow student from her agriculture course, phoned her and she answered after five or six rings.

She said hello but as he started to speak to her he ‘heard a noise like wind’ and could not get a response, the inquest was told.

Gary Wandless, a forensic police collision investigator, said the distance from the collision at Milborne Wood to Kingston Maurward meant Miss Selby would not have made it to catch her bus for the trip on time.

Delivery driver Thomas Patrick Harrison, from Wareham, told the inquest he was driving his Unichem van on December 5 when he saw the Renault Clio twitch towards a grass verge when it ‘seemed to be fine – then all of a sudden it flicked straight across the road and hit me head-on’.

Mr Harrison said he saw flames in the Renault Clio but couldn’t open his door until he repeatedly kicked at it.

Speaking after the inquest he said he panicked at the time and had since been recovering from breaking his collarbone, four ribs and two fingers.

He said: “If I could have helped I would have been in there but everything was just in flames and I was not in a fit state to start helping.

“I just feel sorry for her family.”

Mr Johnston said a resident in Milborne St Andrew saw a car going past that she believed to be the Renault Clio.

He said the phone call from Mr Gale was made at 8.10am, five minutes before a call to police was recorded on December 5.

But Mr Johnston said it could not be proved that Miss Selby was searching for and answering her phone at the time of the collision.

Pathologist Dr Mark Deverill said due to fire damage he was not able to ascertain the cause of death but the lack of carbon or soot particles in Miss Selby’s airways suggested she was dead before her car caught fire.

Messages and pictures have been put on a social networking website to pay tribute to Miss Selby.

Friends and fellow students have signed up to the Facebook group to share their memories of her.