A Hereford woman's attempt to overtake an articulated lorry on a downward stretch of Fromes Hill ended in tragedy when a head-on collision left a Polish-born driver dead.

Joanna Jones, of Westfaling Street, Hereford was driving a VW Golf on the A4103 towards Worcester on the morning of Friday, October 25 last year when she collided with an on-coming Nissan Micra containing five people.

The driver of the Nissan Micra, 41-year-old Zdzislaw Ryszard Jurek, from Malvern, sustained severe skull fractures and died at the scene from multiple injuries due to trauma, an inquest at Hereford Town Hall heard on Tuesday.

PC Alan Paton, an accident investigator, said, as an advanced driver, he would not have attempted to overtake a large goods vehicle in the circumstances outlined.

Giving evidence, Miss Jones said that she did not see the Nissan Micra travelling up the incline towards Hereford.

Lorry driver Robert Mosley, from Kenswick Close, Hereford, was travelling at 40mph along Fromes Hill towards Worcester and saw the Nissan Micra in the bottom of the dip.

"I was breaking to steady down when a vehicle came out from behind me and I watched in the mirror as they hit head-on," he said.

"The Nissan could not go anywhere. If it (the VW Golf) had pulled out and got back in, then there would not have been a problem."

A backseat passenger in the Nissan Micra, Pavel Gdowski, of Worcester, said: "Suddenly, I saw lights and a car emerging from behind a long vehicle travelling in the opposite direction."

Mr Gdowski suffered a broken leg and was airlifted to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Herefordshire coroner David Halpern said Miss Jones started to overtake on a stretch of the A4103 where markings indicated she was allowed to, but there was little distance before she needed to get back in.

"I am told that Miss Jones should have been able to see Mr Jurek but she said that she did not. She pulled out and began to overtake when suddenly Mr Jurek's car was practically on top of her."

Mr Halpern said it was a poor spot to try to overtake a large goods vehicle which, travelling at 40mph, presented a difficult prospect.