AN epileptic fit by a driver may have caused the crash in which her elderly mother-in-law died, an inquest has heard.

Pauline Rodgers, aged 70, was on her way to the Cotswolds towns of Broadway and Moreton-in-Marsh with her mother-in-law Elsie Rodgers when she lost control of her car on the A4538, near Evesham, last October.

The car left the road hitting a roadworks sign, then the left hand pole of a large road sign and subsequently a hedge.

The car, a Ford Escort, then rolled back into the road in front of a Peugeot 406, rolled in the air and landed on its roof.

Elsie Rodgers, aged 88, of Harborne, Birmingham, was certified dead at the scene by paramedics. A post mortem later revealed that the cause of death was a fracture of the cervical spine.

Police experts investigating the accident had not been able to find a reason why the car had gone out of control.

Pauline Rodgers said that she could not remember anything that happened. When she visited her GP for tests, it was found that she may be suffering from a form of epilepsy.

Worcestershire coroner Victor Round said at the inquest in Stourport-on-Severn it seemed that Mrs Rodgers may have suffered "fade out - a petit mal".

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.