CAN ILMINSTER father-of-three had cannabis in his system when he crashed into another car and died, an inquest has heard.

Paul Hall, 43, died as a result of his injuries on April 25 this year after losing control of his green Daewoo Matiz at around 7.40am and crashing into a black Volkswagen Golf, travelling in the opposite direction on B3168.

Tony Williams, HM Senior Coroner for the District of Somerset, came to the conclusion Mr Hall died as a result of the crash.

A number of factors were listed which could have resulted in Mr Hall losing control of his car, although no single cause could be pinpointed by collision investigator PC Julian Chambers.

One of the factors was that Mr Hall had cannabis in his system, which showed up in a urine screen but not a blood screen.

Cannabis remains in urine for around three days after a one-off use of the drug and for up to 20 days in people who use cannabis daily.

The coroner Mr Williams listed three other factors which could have contributed to Mr Hall’s death as fatigue after working a night shift, losing control due to road surface contamination and losing control due to handling problems exacerbated by uneven tyre conditions.

The inquest also heard Mr Hall was not wearing his seatbelt at the time and the airbags in his Daewoo Matiz did not deploy.

His front two tyres were overinflated by 25 per cent and his two rear tyres were under inflated, one 25 per cent and the other by 17.8 per cent.

Paul Spencer Hall, of Blackdown View, Ilminster, was travelling on the B3168 from Seavington St Mary to Ilminster having finished working a night shift as a care assistant.

He was travelling at around 50mph on the road on which the limit is 60mph.

There should have been a road sign on the approach to the bend advising a maximum speed of 40mph, but this sign had been detached from its mounting in a previous incident, the inquest was told.

There was evidence of an unidentified contaminant on the road on the approach to the bend, although no witness testimony reported the road was slippery.

Cory Slocombe, the driver of the black Golf, told PC Chambers that ‘within a split second the green car lost control and spun to the right’ and into his car.

A statement from PC Chambers, the collision investigator, said: “As the driver entered into the right hand bend he lost control of the vehicle and crossed onto the other side of the road and collided with an oncoming car.”

Mr Hall’s car received extensive damage to the near side and the front wheel was ripped from that side of the car. The other car suffered substantial damage on the front of the car.

The Golf’s airbags were activated and Mr Slocombe received injuries to his back, neck and pelvis. He was treated at Musgrove Park Hospital.

Mr Hall was airlifted to Southmead Hospital in Bristol where he died later that day.

Mr Hall’s cause of death was given as a broken neck (a cervical fracture) and a bleed in the brain (subarachnoid haemorrhage).