DRIVER error was to blame for an horrific road crash in which an Amesbury man was killed on the Warminster bypass, an inquest at Salisbury heard on Tuesday last week.

Stuart Scurr (36), of Chambers Avenue, Amesbury, died when an oncoming motorist made what a police collision investigator called "an abortive overtaking manoeuvre".

PC Stephen Cox told Wiltshire coroner David Masters that the point of impact placed the other car, driven by Adam Salters (18), of Waterlooville, on the wrong side of the road.

Mr Scurr died at Salisbury District Hospital from head injuries and Mr Salters died at the scene from multiple traumatic injuries.

Other motorists were involved in secondary collisions after the two collided but the inquest heard they were not contributory to the deaths of Mr Scurr or Mr Salters.

A passenger in Mr Scurr's car, his son, Phillip, said he had not been paying attention to the road ahead as they travelled towards their home.

He said it had been a long tiring day and he had "switched off".

He said: "All of a sudden I felt the car brake hard ... I looked up and saw a set of headlights in front of us."

Another motorist, Lewis Kelly, of Newport, south Wales, said Mr Salters's car came up behind him, intending, he thought, to overtake.

Then he saw the approaching car and tried to pull in as far as possible but said there was a massive bang after the oncoming car went past.

"In my opinion, the cause of the collision was due to driver error," said collision investigator PC Cox.

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death for Mr Scurr.

Recording a verdict of misadventure for Mr Salters, he said it was probable that he was trying to overtake, realised he could not and could not get back in behind Mr Kelly.