A WOMAN who died after being struck by two cars when crossing a "pitch black" Newport road, was hit by the second vehicle as it swerved to avoid the driver of the first.

Suzanne Stribling was on her way to the Morrisons supermarket off the city's Corporation Road at around 7.30pm on Friday November 13 last year, when she was hit by a Renault Clio, south of the Southern Distributor Road-Corporation Road junction, near the Robert Price builders' merchant's compound.

An inquest heard that the Clio driver had told police Mrs Stribling suddenly appeared in the road near the compound, as he travelled south from the junction.

He had not been travelling fast, and braked and swerved, but "clipped" her. He stopped in the middle of the road and got out to check on her, before moving his car into the compound entrance.

On his way back to her, he saw other headlights approaching as she lay, and he ran into the road waving his arms.

A car drove around him, and a second moved to his left, in doing so running over Mrs Stribling.

The driver of that second car, a Vauxhall Astra, described the road to police as being "pitch black" with the streetlights off.

He had seen a man - who turned out to be the Clio driver - coming towards his car from the left, out of the darkness. Having no idea what he wanted, he steered right, thinking it was children playing pranks, or a drunk, and then felt a bump underneath.

Neither car was found to be defective, and forensic collision expert PC Robert Witherall told senior coroner for Gwent David Bowen that there was no evidence of excessive speed.

The Clio driver was found to be over the permitted driving level for drugs.

But it was considered that while he was over the limit, the conditions at the scene, and the visibility, would have made it difficult for any driver to have seen Mrs Stribling, who had been wearing dark clothing.

A post mortem examination revealed she died of a blunt chest injury. It could not be ascertained which collision caused her death, though it was probably the second.

Mr Bowen said the first driver subsequently pleaded guilty to two charges related to driving while over the legal drugs limit.

He added that though such behaviour cannot be condoned, "it is unlikely to have had a material bearing on this incident" and his verdict was that Mrs Stribling had died as a result of a road traffic incident.