Sixty-one-year-old Margaret Anne Griffiths, of Perthiaur, Penboyr, died at the scene of a road traffic accident on the A40 Carmarthen to Haverfordwest road, near the foot of Pengawse Hill, Whitland, when an oncoming vehicle ran out of control and somersaulted.
At an inquest into her death yesterday (Thursday), evidence was given that the Griffiths' Peugeot was travelling down hill near where the overtaking lane begins when a Vauxhall car, being driven by Shaun Lewis Hall, attempted to pull out to pass a slow moving vehicle, but found that he was already being overtaken by a Volvo car being driven by Edward Sherwood, of New Moat, Clarbeston Road.
Mr. Hall - a Private in the Royal Corp of Signals, based at Cawdor Barracks, Haverfordwest - apparently 'over compensated' for his manouvre and the car began to zig-zag before swerving across the oncoming traffic lane and overturning.
Mr. Hall was conveyed by air ambulance from the scene to Morriston Hospital and a number of his passengers, who had been with him on a day trip to Swansea, were rendered unconscious.
There was a conflict of evidence between two of the passengers in Mr. Hall's car, one saying that the Vauxhall car came in contact with the Volvo and the other saying that this was not so. Mr. Sherwood also insisted that there had been no contact between the two vehicles.
There was no evidence of alcohol in a blood sample given by Mr. Hall, but there were signs of a prescribed pain reliever.
Other witnesses included Natasha King, of Narberth, who was travelling in an Escort car driven by her sister, Mrs. Wales, of Saundersfoot, Glenn Roberts, the driver of a Mitsubishi pick-up truck, and Dr. Jonothan Squire, a medical practitioner from Fishguard, who was following the Griffiths' car and immediately pronounced that the victim's life was extinct.
The extent of the injuries sustained by Mrs. Griffiths were confirmed in a post mortem report from Dr. Melville Jones, consultant pathologist, who stated that the very severe head injuries and other fractures to the body were "unsurvivable".
A verdict of accidental death was returned.