A popular 22-year-old who died after the car she was driving crashed into a wall was simply in the “wrong place at the wrong time”, an inquest heard.

Nicole Parnell suffered serious head injuries when she lost control of her Peugeot 307 on a damp country lane in Hunton last December.

She suffered severe brain damage and died 11 days later, at King’s College Hospital in London after her life support machine was switched off.

The carer, from Grove Lane, had been driving home from work when the crash happened, at the junction of Lughorse Lane and Hunton Hill.

An inquest into her death, held at Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone today, heard that the former Cornwallis Academy student was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and had not been using her mobile phone while she was driving.

There were no eyewitnesses to the collision but a monitor, installed in the car for insurance purposes, showed that she had been travelling within the 60mph speed limit before the crash.

The coroner heard Miss Parnell had made a sharp turn while approaching a bend in the road. Her car had begun to spin before hitting the wall at 40mph.

A report from PC Andrew Sutherland, a forensic investigator at Kent Police, revealed that the car had a screw embedded in its rear tyre, leaving it under-inflated. He also noted that the road was damp and covered by leaves at the time.

“It seems to me that this was a combination of events that ended in a dreadful accident” - coroner Ian Wade QC

He could not rule out that Miss Parnell, who had been qualified to drive for around six months, had been reacting to another vehicle or something else on the road.

Coroner Ian Wade QC said he did not think anyone was to blame for the crash.

“It seems to me that this was a combination of events that ended in a dreadful accident,” he said.

“It may be it was a combination of driving at a brisk speed, a little bit of inexperience, an under-inflated tyre causing the car to lose a little grip, and an area of dampness on the road which would cause the car to seem to be steering more towards the right.

“I don’t know that there was anything anyone could have done. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He concluded that Miss Parnell died from head injuries as a result of a road traffic collision.

Stories you might have missed

Body pulled from canal

Teenage girl found dead at home

Police probe after man 'slashed across face'

Councillor suspended by text over 'racist' tweet