A YOUNG couple were involved in an accident which left one of them dead and the other critically injured just weeks after arriving in the county, an inquest was told.

Lukasz and Elzbieta Fleszar had been running late on their way to work when their car collided with an HGV at 5.30am on Friday, November 6.

The HGV driver, Nigel Davies, told the inquest, in evidence, that he had just gone through Leominster onto the A44 at Baron's Cross when he saw the headlights of an oncoming car .

The car clipped the verge on a bend, careered onto his side of the road and came straight at him.

"There was nothing I could do, it was so quick," he said.

Eyewitness Andrew Adams, travelling just behind the HGV, said he saw the car go broadside, straighten up, then slam into the truck head-on.

Mr Fleszar - who had come to the county with his wife from Poland only weeks earlier - died in the accident.

Taken to Hereford County Hospital, Mrs Fleszar was to survive in a coma.

In a statement, Tomasz Jearzejek, a friend of the Fleszars, said he was waiting for them to make a pick-up point in Leominster, from where the three would drive to Bromyard for a 6am start at Polytec Holden, where they worked together.

Mr Jearzejek said he woke the couple with a "where are you?" call to their Monkland home at about 5.30am.

He was told they had overslept, were running late, and would make their own way in. When they didn't arrive, he rang around, to be told of the accident.

Collision investigator PC Nigel Phillips said there was no evidence at the scene to show either vehicle had been speeding.

The evidence showed the Rover mounted the verge on a bend, crossed onto the opposite side of the road and into the HGV, said PC Phillips.

"There was no time to avoid a collision," he said.

The inquest heard that the Rover was well maintained and had only recently been taxed, insured and passed its MOT, with the Fleszars having help to get it all done.

Mr Bricknell ruled Mr Fleszar's death was accidental.