A NEW dad who had been kept awake for weeks after the birth of his baby may have fallen asleep at the wheel of his car when it veered off an overpass and plunged onto the road below.

Nationwide Building Society risk manager Dimitrios Doxiandis, 33, was driving to work in Swindon when he died in the crash in Cirencester on July 21 this year.

The inquest in Gloucester heard was told he left home in at 6am each morning to get to work for 8am. 

At around 7am that morning his blue Vauxhall Corsa left the A417 near Cirencester and crashed onto Dowers Lane, a road that ran underneath the dual carriageway.

The court heard that Mr Doxiandis had recently returned to work following the birth of his baby five weeks earlier and he and his wife, Victoria, had been suffering regular sleepless nights.

The night before the accident, the court heard, the baby had been particularly unsettled and Mr Doxiandis had got up to help his wife.

PC Hannah Brown said she had learnt that Mr Doxiandis set an alarm for 4:40am each day but on that particular morning the baby woke at 4am so he and his wife got up and had breakfast together before he left his home in Kingshurst road, Birmingham for work at 6am.

Collision Investigator, PC Philip Reese said it appeared Mr Dioxandis may have fallen asleep at the wheel leading him to losing control and leaving the road.

He said another vehicle had been driving in the same direction that morning and the driver, Rachel Cromwell, recalled the Corsa overtaking her on that section of the dual carriageway.

He said she saw the Corsa head towards the left-hand bend and it seemed to accelerate but not make an effort to take the bend before she watched it 'launch off the embankment'.

PC Reese said that in his experience the sudden increase in acceleration and lack of corrective steering suggested a lack of consciousness which is usually sleep or medical related.

With no evidence to suggest the driver had suffered a medical episode he attributed it as sleep related, he said.

PC Reese said there was no defect found in the car, no evidence of excessive speed and the weather was dry with good road conditions.

A toxicological report completed at the post-mortem examination did not find any evidence of drugs or alcohol in Mr Doxiandis' system.

Assistant Gloucestershire Coroner Caroline Saunders said it appeared there was either a point of misjudgement or he fell asleep, meaning Mr Doxianidis failed to negotiate a left hand bend leading to the chain of events in which he lost his life.

Mrs Saunders said after hearing evidence of the recurrent sleepless nights she was satisfied that was a contributory factor that led to his loss of control.

She recorded a conclusion of death by road traffic collision.