A diabetic may have blacked out at the wheel, causing his car to veer straight across a road and hit a tree and utility post, an inquest heard.

Roy Light, who died in hospital two days after the accident, told a paramedic while he was being cut free from the wreckage of his Skoda Fabia that he had felt unwell just before the collision.

The 79-year-old, who lived in Rockdale Gardens, Sevenoaks, was said by another motorist travelling in the opposite direction on Old London Road in Knockholt to have driven straight across the road instead of steering around a sharp bend.

The inquest at Gravesend’s Old Town Hall heard Mr Light told a paramedic from South East Coast Ambulance Service he thought he may have blacked out and had a “diabetic hypo” – when blood sugar levels drop.

The retired industrial civil servant also said he did not recall the crash but had felt unwell beforehand.

However, North West Kent coroner Roger Hatch was told Mr Light’s blood sugar levels were not low enough to cause any concerns or problems.

Mr Light suffered multiple severe injuries in the accident at 6.30pm on August 6 and was taken to King’s College Hospital in London.

The widower died two days later of multiple organ failure as a result of an infarcted bowel – when blood supply is restricted – which had been operated on after the crash.

Mr Hatch recorded a verdict of death due to natural causes.

PC Andrew Sutherland of the Kent Police forensic investigation unit told the inquest that Mr Light’s comment about blacking out would be consistent with his failure to negotiate the bend and having driven in a straight line across the road.

He said the left-hand, 45 degree bend at the junction with Starhill Road and Birchwood Lane was marked by warning signs, there was no evidence on the road surface itself to indicate emergency braking or steering, and no defects on Mr Light’s car which could have contributed to the accident.