A woman who lost control of her car and hit a tree would have survived if she had been wearing a seatbelt, an inquest heard.

Rebecca Lashbrook, 33, was over the drink-drive limit when her Hyundai Coupe SE crashed into a ditch near Stoke Lyne, on May 28 last year.

She suffered severe head injuries and was treated at the Horton Hospital, Banbury, and Addenbrooke Hospital, in Cambridge, but never regained consciousness.

Miss Lashbrook, of Green Farm, The Green, Fringford, died almost a month later at Katharine House hospice, in Adderbury.

Following yesterday’s inquest, her former boyfriend Graham White, 48, urged people to wear a seatbelt.

Oxford Coroner’s Court heard Miss Lashbrook, who used to work for bakery ingredients firm British Bakels, in Bicester, and most recently for chocolate firm Barry Callebaut, in Banbury, had drunk eight vodka and cokes three hours before the smash.

She met Mr White in the Butchers Arms, Fringford, at about 4pm for a drink then later went to the Peyton Arms, in Stoke Lyne, before heading into Bicester with the pub’s darts team.

Miss Lashbrook returned later in a taxi then got in her car and drove to see Mr White at his home, in Baynards Green, near Bicester.

Afterwards she got back in her car and headed home.

Miss Lashbrook was found by passers-by who initially thought the car was abandoned.

Police believed she hit a verge on the Stratton Audley road and, as she tried to correct herself, lost control of her car and ploughed into a tree.

Collision investigator PC Gary Baldwin told the hearing: “She would have escaped serious injury if she’d been wearing a seatbelt.”

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: “Her alcohol level was three hours later still significantly over the maximum limit.

“The event itself I doubt would have had the same consequence had she been wearing a seatbelt.”

He recorded a verdict that Miss Lashbrook died as the result of an accident.

After the inquest, Mr White said: “She was a friend, a kind person. She would go out of her way to help people no matter what.

“All she wanted was someone to love her and cherish her.”