ICE on the roads and not driving to the weather conditions resulted in a fatal crash on the A4110 in Wigmore.

An inquest at Herefordshire Coroner's Court heard Nicolae-Cristian Gavrila died after the car he was driving hit a tree.

The 31-year-old was driving to work at Radnor Hills in Knighton on December 16 last year at around 5.30am when he overtook a car.

He lost control on ice and the car hit a tree - Mr Gavrila was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police officer Paul Turner said the road conditions were "horrendous" and on leaving Hereford the roads were covered in patches of ice. At the scene of the crash there was "sheer black ice," he said.

Andrew Williams from Balfour Beatty said the stretch of road had been gritted/salted at 7pm the previous evening.

He said they monitor weather conditions and no rain was forecast. They would only grit the road again during the night if it had rained and washed the grit away.

Mr Williams said it would not be typical for a road to be that icy after being gritted and said the gritting lorries are weighed when they return to check they have spread the correct amount of grit.

He said: "I don't know why ice formed."

Mr Gavrila, from High Street in Ross-on-Wye, was given shiftwork through East Recruitment. He had also been selected as a driver for the company and provided with a company car to drive other employees to work.

He had four passengers in the car with him at the time of the crash.

Passenger Costel Tudor said he had to ask him to slow down as he thought he was driving too fast for the icy conditions. He said: "This is a tragic incident that could have been avoided if he had listened to me when I asked him to slow down and I did more than once."

Imelda Keturkaite, who owns East Recruitment with her husband, said the company vehicles are regularly maintained and driving licence checks are also carried out.

Mr Gavrila's brother, Demitru, said his brother had come over to England from Romania to join him in August 2017. He had a wife and son at home and intended to bring his family over to settle in England permanently.

A post mortem revealed Mr Gavrila died from multiple head and chest injuries.

Coroner Mark Bricknell said there was two points: "First is the speed at which he was travelling which, although possibly not excessive, may have been inappropriate for the road conditions, and also the presence of ice on the roads."

He recorded Mr Gavrila died as a result of a road traffic collision.