A CONFUSED pensioner drove the wrong way on a dual carriageway at 100mph and caused a crash which killed him and the other driver, an inquest heard.

American Floyd Conradi, 52, could not avoid the speeding Astra driven by John Easton, a former Adver employee, on the A417 in the Cotswolds.

Both Mr Conradi and Mr Easton, 77, of Charlbury Road, Shrivenham, died when their cars met head-on at a combined speed of 172mph, the inquest was told.

Mr Easton had driven onto the A417 westbound, near Cirencester, from a side road on February 16 this year – but had turned right and accelerated along the fast lane in the wrong direction, the inquest heard.

Motorists, including an off duty police sergeant, tried to warn him that he was going the wrong way.

After just 900 metres his Vauxhall Astra had reached almost 100mph when it hit Mr Conradi’s Mercedes, which was doing 72mph in the overtaking lane.

Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore heard that it was the second wrong-way accident on that stretch of road in the space of a few weeks. The earlier accident had not been fatal.

The coroner said he would write to the highways authorities recommending that a warning of some kind should be painted on the road to alert drivers heading the wrong way.

The inquest was attended by Mr Conradi’s parents from Washington State, USA, Cal and Lenore Lee.

Mrs Lee said: “Floyd was in the wrong place at the wrong time – it was a freak incident that just came out of the blue.”

Mr Easton’s partner, Maureen Peapell, who hugged Mr and Mrs Lee after the inquest and apologised to them for the tragedy, declined to comment.

The collision was seen by Joseph Webb, who was travelling in a car just in front of Mr Conradi’s Mercedes.

Joseph’s grandfather, Arthur Webb, of Caudle Green, Gloucestershire, said in a statement made after the collision he felt there should be more signs at the scene to deter motorists from making the same mistake as Mr Easton.

He told the coroner that in fact ‘a forest of signs’ went up yesterday – nine months after the accident.

Joseph Webb said he turned and looked out of the back window of his grandfather’s car and saw the Astra suddenly stop as if it had hit something, he said.

Mr Easton’s GP, Dr Kathryn Maitland-Ward said he suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had undergone a hip replacement operation last year but had not shown any signs of dementia or depression.

At no time did she ever observe him to be confused, she said.

However the coroner was told that both Mr Easton’s partner and a Swindon shop assistant where he had bought curtain rails that day, both felt that he seemed ‘a little confused’.

The coroner said: “He was certainly not himself and was not acting entirely rationally at the time of the collision.”

Verdicts: Accidental death.