The driver of a car that killed a man on a pedestrian crossing was unable to take avoiding action, a coroner has decided.

Becky-Leigh Drewitt’s vision was affected by blind spots around the crossing at Townwall Street in Dover when she struck Simon Howard.

The approach on the A20 was on a lower level and vision would have been limited by raised flowerbeds, an inquest heard.

But exactly what happened remains a mystery because there were no other witnesses and no CCTV.

Ms Drewitt had been travelling on the right hand lane, coming down from Jubilee Way after finishing a shift as a hotel worker in Canterbury.

She told the inquest: “I remember hitting something and pulled the car to one side. I can’t remember where he came from.

"All I could see was his face as I hit him and there was panic on it..." - Ms Drewitt

“All I could see was his face as I hit him and there was panic on it.

“Why didn’t I see him? I don’t know, I’d like to know that.’’

Christine Freedman, assistant coroner for central and south east Kent, concluded that Mr Howard had an accidental death.

She said: “There are a number of uncertainties about precisely what happened before the collision.

“But once Mr Howard was visible to Ms Drewitt she was unable to take any avoiding action.’’

Mr Howard, 31, was hit by Ms Drewitt’s BMW 320D at a toucan crossing just west of the Eastern Docks and Jubilee Way roundabout.

It happened on the westbound carriageway at around 1am on Sunday, May 11 last year.

Mr Howard had been using the crossing to go from the beach side of the road to the main town side.

PC Mark Myers, forensic collision investigator said that the car had no contributory defects.

But he said that the approach to the crossing from the south (beach) side had an initial visual obstruction, as a pedestrian had to got up a slope to reach the kerbside and there were raised flowerbeds.

But there was a clear view at the kerbside.

However he said the view of a driver approaching from the east, Ms Drewitt’s direction, would have been obscured by the flowerbeds.

He told the inquest: “The driver would have had insufficient time to see and react to Mr Howard’s presence."