A NEW Forest lorry driver died of horrific injuries when two 32-ton tipper trucks collided head-on near Ringwood, an inquest heard.

Ronald Sullivan was travelling on the wrong side of the road before the crash that killed him, East Dorset district coroner Sheriff Payne was told.

The 56-year-old, of Ringwood Road, Fordingbridge, died at the scene of the tragic accident on the B3081 at Baker's Hanging on the Dorset-Hampshire border last year.

A Bournemouth inquest heard Mr Sullivan was likely to have lost control of his vehicle as he travelled through a series of downhill bends towards Ringwood.

His lorry collided "cab-to-cab" with a Mercedes truck travelling in the opposite direction.

The coroner was told that the Mercedes driver suffered serious difficulties as a result of the accident and has no recollection of events. He did not give evidence.

Police accident investigator PC David Burgess told the inquest that both vehicles were loaded with sand. He said the Mercedes driver had braked and moved to his nearside before the collision but added: "There was nothing else he could have done."

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Payne said: "Mr Sullivan mis-managed his driving of the lorry on that day.

"It would appear to me that the other driver was totally blameless for what happened."

The accident on November 29 was the first in of a spate of winter fatalities at the Bakers Hanging blackspot leading to calls from both Hampshire and Dorset local councillors for action to improve the safety of stretch of the busy Ringwood to Verwood road between the A31 flyover and Alderholt road junction.

In December a driver died at the wheel of his Mercedes when it burst into flames after leaving the road and crashing into a tree and in early January a pensioner was killed when his car was in collision with another vehicle near the Hamer Warren gravel pit.