A MAN who died in a crash on the A48 after pulling his car out of a junction in front of a van, suffered a lapse of concentration at the worst moment, a coroner concluded.

Brian Creigh, 81, of Chepstow, died on October 12 last year, after taking old kitchen units to the Five Lanes recycling centre, near Penhow.

An inquest hearing in Newport was told that Mr Creigh pulled his Audi estate car out of the recycling site exit into the path of a Ford transit van driven by Mark Green, who works for Chepstow Plant Hire.

In a statement read at the hearing, Mr Green described the Audi pulling “straight out”.

“I could not see the driver looking my way. I could not do anything for him. I tried to react, brake, swerve,” he said.

A police investigation of the crash site revealed that Mr Green - who was returning home from work - had been travelling at around 55mph and would have had less than a second to react to Mr Creigh’s manoeuvre.

The crash happened at shortly after 4pm that afternoon.

Mr Creigh’s vehicle - he had borrowed it from a friend, but was familiar with it and was insured to drive it - was spun around more than 360 degrees by the impact. He died at the scene of brain and head injuries.

Witness Lee Watkins, also in a statement, described approaching from the Newport direction and pulling into the filter lane to turn right into the recycling centre.

He described seeing the van approaching, and he saw Mr Creigh pull up to the junction and look in his direction before pulling out to turn right towards Chepstow, into the path of the van.

Senior coroner for Gwent Wendy James said it was unclear why Mr Creigh had pulled out with another vehicle approaching, though he may have thought the car in the filter lane was waiting for him, and had done so “without checking”.

“Whatever the reason, he evidently had a momentary lapse of concentration , but unfortunately for him it happened at the worst moment,” she said.

Conclusion: Mr Creigh died as a result of a road traffic collision.