A TEENAGER died after losing control and crashing her car into an oncoming lorry, an inquest heard today.

Laura Bradley was killed instantly when her black Ford Ka crossed into the path of a green delivery lorry on the A424 between Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold last July.

Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said the 19-year-old was on her way to work at The Merrymouth Inn, in Stow Road, Fifield, when she took a corner too wide, over-compensated as she tried to correct her line and crashed into the lorry.

Miss Bradley, a gap year student from Ash Avenue, Carterton, first steered towards the side of the road but hit the verge and veered across the carriageway into the lorry’s path.

Lorry driver Graham Maskell, of Thorney Leys, Witney, said he had just finished delivering supplies to The Merrymouth Inn from Wychwood Brewery at about 11am on July 25 when he overtook two cyclists.

He said he had just pulled back on to his side of the road when he saw Miss Bradley’s car swerving.

Mr Maskell said: “My first impression was it was on our side of the road slightly, and second it was going quite fast.

“The car started swerving and then its wheels went up on to the grass.

“As soon as it went on to the grass it appeared to shoot straight across the road.

“I hung on to the wheel as hard as I could and I pressed the pedals, the brake and the clutch, as hard as I could.”

In a statement read to the court, Carterton resident Andrew Woodrow, a passenger in the lorry, said: “We saw a black car coming from the other direction quite fast.

“Its wheels were on, if not over, the central white line.

“It suddenly swerved right, then left, then right again. It then swerved across. I would describe the impact as violent.”

Mary Shapter was driving behind the lorry in her grey Volkswagen Golf on the way from her home in Bourton-on-the-Water to Oxford when she witnessed the crash.

In a statement, she said: “My gut reaction at the time was that there was nothing the lorry driver could have done. I remember thinking it all happened so quickly that the lorry driver would have had next to no time to stop.”

Consultant pathologist Dr James Carton said Miss Bradley died almost instantaneously from severe head injuries.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Gardiner said: “On rounding a left-hand bend on the A424 she went wide and over-reacted to an oncoming vehicle, lost control and went across its front when a collision occurred.”

Speaking after the hearing, Miss Bradley’s parents Jayne and Michael, brother Paul and sister Hannah, said: “Laura was our beautiful, vibrant and gorgeous girl who bought sheer joy and happiness to all who knew her.

“We will never forget the love, laughter and delight she gave to us and her friends, and we will all love and cherish her forever.”