A CRASH on a narrow country road which killed a mother-of-three on her quad bike was unavoidable, an inquest was told.

An inquest into the death of Janet Gorst, of Mutton Hall, Old Hutton, heard the 43-year-old suffered multiple injuries and severe internal bleeding following the two vehicle crash on a brow of a hill on Old Scotch Road, near Killington, on the morning of March 6 this year.

She was later pronounced dead at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Kirsteen Procter, the driver of the other vehicle involved, a Land Rover Discovery, told the Kendal County Hall hearing that she was travelling in the opposite direction to Mrs Gorst and had less than one second to react from seeing the quad bike to the time of the crash.

"It's not the kind of road two vehicles can pass easily," said Ms Procter, who was not injured in the crash. "I only saw her when I got to the brow of the hill. I was as far to the left as I could and so was she. I tried to swerve but there was no time."

The inquest also heard evidence from PC Richard Wiejak, an expert collision investigator from Cumbria Police.

He said there was no evidence of braking and added a reconstruction had revealed there would have only been around two seconds from when the two drivers saw each other to the crash occurring because of the lay-out of the road.

"The typical reaction time in terms of seeing a hazard and physically braking is around that time," said Ulverston-based PC Wiejak. "That time would have been taken up realising there was a hazard before having a chance to steer or brake.

He added: "There was clearly a point in which both vehicles are hidden from each other as they approached the scene of the crash.

"Although the road is quite straight there are some undulating dips which effectively mean if you are travelling in one direction you have a hidden dip, and if you are travelling the other way, a brow, which obscured the view for both vehicles."

He added the width of the road was 2.9 metres while the Land Rover's width was 1.8 metres and the quad bike's 1.1metres.

Coroner for south and east Cumbria, Ian Smith, concluded Mrs Gorst died as a result of a road traffic collision.

"The events that occurred that day are horrible and at the same time very simple," he said. "There was simply not enough room to manoeuvre in terms of distance, time and width."

At the time of her death, Mrs Gorst's family described her as ‘a proud stockman whose motto in life was 'live life passionately, laugh until your belly hurts, and love unconditionally''.