AN ELDERLY man crossing the road to his local shop died after being hit by a car driver who failed to see him as he reversed around a corner, an inquest heard.

Widower Edgar Martin, 86, suffered a broken hip in the low-speed collision and died five days later after an operation to pin the fracture.

At an inquest in Gloucester the county coroner Alan Crickmore recorded a verdict that father of two Mr Martin, of Rosebery Road, Dursley, died accidentally.

"It is not for me to apportion blame at all but it does seem to me to be a situation where neither of the people involved were taking complete notice of all of their surroundings," said the coroner.

He had been told that Mr Martin was crossing the road to the Co-op when Mario Malecki reversed his Mitsubishi Grandis around the corner from Rosebery Mount.

The accident was seen by a family walking down a footpath into Dursley to catch a bus to Gloucester that morning, March 31.

William Dyke said in his opinion Mr Malecki's reversing manoeuvre was made more difficult by a car which was illegally parked on the corner behind him - forcing him to go out into the middle of the road to get past it.

"Crossing the road at the same time was an elderly man," he said. "He was looking straight forward.

"The Mitsubishi hit him and he fell over sideways. He hit his head on the ground.

"The car continued reversing, albeit slowly. I began running towards the car shouting 'whoa, stop the car.' I was waving my arms to get the driver's attention."

He said the car did stop and he told Mr Malecki what had happened and asked him to drive slowly forward. Mr Martin was under the vehicle between the rear wheels but had not been run over.

Mr Dyke said the driver told him "I didn't see him - I was concentrating on getting around the car on the corner."

Mr Dyke's wife Mary-Ann said she also witnessed the whole accident and could see what was going to happen moments before the reversing Mitsubishi struck Mr Martin.

She said Mr Martin, lying on the road, told her "I did look but didn't see any cars coming so I thought it was OK to cross the road."

Mrs Dyke said she believed that Mr Martin, who had a stick in one hand and a shopping bag in the other, was looking down and concentrating on his footing as he crossed the road.

PC Victoria Long said Mr Malecki was distraught at the accident scene and said he had not seen Mr Martin.

Mr Martin told her "I just couldn't get out of the way in time."

Mr Malecki gave evidence but was advised by his solicitor not to answer a number of questions in case the answers incriminated him in civil or criminal proceedings resulting from the tragedy.

He confirmed that he was driving the Mitsubishi at the time of the collision.

PC Kelly Walker said that when interviewed by police Mr Malecki stated: "As I began the manoeuvre I checked over my left shoulder and the road behind was clear. I moved around a parked four wheel drive vehicle.

"As the rear of my vehicle drew level with the parked vehicle I heard a dull thud and stopped. I saw someone running towards my car and telling me to move forward."

Pathologist Dr Samir Anjarwalla said Mr Martin had a successful hip repair operation on April 5 and came out of the anaesthetic but then declined and died.

His death was due to a pulmonary embolism - a blood clot on the lung resulting from deep vein thrombosis in the leg, he said.

PC David Edwards, collision investigator, said: "Unfortunately neither party saw each other until it was too late."