Husband held his dying wife in arms

A devastated husband whose wife was killed as she retrieved a bag of shoes from the motorway told her inquest how he cradled her in his arms as she lay dying.

Pensioner Patricia Gardner, from Little Bloxwich, Walsall, was knocked down as she and husband Barry set off on holiday to the Isle of Wight, on June 25. The bag fell from the roof rack.

At 9am on June 25, the 64-year-old ventured on to the carriageway of the M40 in Warwickshire to pick it up. The driver of the car that hit Mrs Gardner, Alan Wall, also said there was nothing he could do to avoid the former administrative secretary.

Her husband told Oxfordshire's cororner's court yesterday: "I heard a bang, I did not see it, I heard it.

"I went over and put my arms around her, I was holding her and saying 'keep going', but the paramedics said 'she's gone' and they led me away."

Mr Gardner, 74, told the hearing: "I had no idea she was going to do it, if I'd have known I would have said 'no you don't'."

The contents of the red bag fell from the couple's Mazda 2, spilled across two lanes and forced drivers to swerve in a bid to avoid them, the inquest heard.

Mr Gardner said he saw the items fall from the roof in his driver's mirror and pulled over on to the hard shoulder with the intention of calling the police.

Mr Wall was driving his silver Ford Escort. He told the inquest: "I was confident I was going to miss the person in front of me, I was concentrating on keeping control of the car and not risking a skid by going into an emergency stop," he said.

A post mortem revealed her cause of death was given as multiple injuries.

Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Gardner said: "She was one of the best, she was kind, considerate and intellegent."