A FOUR-YEAR-OLD girl suffering from leukaemia died after the car she was travelling in was hit by an inexperienced driver who had been smoking cannabis, an inquest heard.

Isabella Anya Hill and her three-year-old brother were returning to their home in Bath after a day out in Weymouth with their grandfather, Andre Le Corre.

A charity had been established in Isabella's name in 2003 to help fight her killer disease.

West Dorset Coroner Michael Johnston heard how on July 6, 2004, at around 7pm, Mr Le Corre's silver Mazda was turning right on to the Dorchester bypass from the A352 near Max Gate when they were hit by a blue Honda Accord being driven by Barnaby Kenneth Pearce.

Witnesses said Mr Pearce, who was 19 at the time and had been driving for less than nine months, was travelling well over the road's 60mph speed limit.

Giving evidence, unemployed Mr Pearce, of Landguard Road, Southamp-ton, said earlier in the day he had smoked two joints of cannabis but felt that his judgement had not been affected.

He told the inquest in Dorchester he and his four passengers had driven to Thorncombe Woods where they often met up with friends, but had not stopped, deciding instead to go back down the A35.

He said: "I accelerated up to about 60 miles an hour or just under. When I got to the bridge I saw a car which was stationary at the junction about 150 metres away.

"From the bridge to the junction I left off the accelerator. When I was 100 metres from the junction the car decided to pull out. I braked and skidded. At the time I just panicked.

"Before I braked I think I was doing about 60 miles an hour."

Damian Cook, who had followed his friend out of Thorncombe Woods, said as the two cars got on to the A35 they both accelerated.

He said: "He went as fast as his car would accelerate. First of all I put my foot down. I didn't know what speed he was going to do so I accelerated to try to keep up with him.

"I was worried that I was going to run out of fuel, so I slowed down. I had been going quite fast. It was above 90 miles an hour, I reckon. I slowed to about 65."

Mr Cook said as he came over the brow of the hill he saw Mr Pearce's car hit the silver Mazda. He said: "His front end was going down as he was braking, but he didn't steer to avoid it. He didn't do anything at all."

Mr Le Corre said as he had got to the junction with the A35 he had looked carefully both ways a number of times.

He said: "I checked again on my right side and found there were cars but they were far enough back for me to proceed.

"When I saw the car moving to the centre of the road as I pulled out. It wasn't going the normal speed. It just frightened me to death.

"It almost looked like it was deliberate the way the car was coming at me. He was absolutely bolting down.

"If he had been going at a normal speed I would have been across the road and going up the hill."

Accident investigator PC Phillip Purvis said Mr Pearce's car had hit Mr Le Corre's car in the driver's side rear door where Isabella had been sitting.

He said from skid marks and other measurements taken at the scene he estimated Mr Pearce had been travelling at 'between 75 and 78mph.'

He said that the skid marks were 39.5m long and that a car travelling at the 60mph speed limit would have taken 56 metres to stop.

He said that it was not, however, possible to say whether a car obeying the speed limit would still have had the accident.

The inquest heard Isabella and her brother Alfie had been taken to Dorset County Hospital where Isabella had died from severe multiple injuries.

Recording a verdict of death by accident West Dorset Coroner Michael Johnston said the combination of Mr Pearce's excess speed and Mr Le Corre's difficulty in judging that speed had resulted in the accident.

He said that although Mr Pearce had not been drinking, he had had cannabis. He said: "Studies on cannabis show that it is, if anything, worse than low amounts of alcohol. It distorts a driver's perception of speed and his ability to react.

"If I knew someone had been smoking a joint I wouldn't even get into the car with them.

"Mr Pearce was a relatively inexperienced driver. He came over the brow of the hill. Because of the angle of the road it was difficult for Mr Le Corre to know how fast he was going. He thought it was safe to pull out.

"When he pulled out he pulled out into a car which was going 25 per cent faster than he dreamed of.

"It would, in theory, have been possible to pull round Mr Le Corre's car but Mr Pearce was not that experienced and he panicked."

Jan James, chairman of the Bath and district branch of Challenging Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood (CLIC), met Isabella when she helped launch an appeal for the charity in 2003.

She said: "It is such a tragic loss of a young girl who had been through so much already. She was a beautiful little girl."

A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency, which manages the A35, said since the accident £45,000 of improvements had been carried out to make the junction safer.