A SOLDIER who fell asleep at the wheel of his sports car at 110mph awoke moments before he crashed into the back of a lorry and died instantly.

Lance Cpl Darren Martin Cox, 21, of Helston, had had almost no sleep for 21 hours before the accident, an inquest in Gloucester heard last week.

He died at 5.30am on June 7 on the northbound M5 near Michaelwood Services when he hit the back of a HGV while driving back to his base in Scotland.

L Cpl Cox, who was serving with the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion stationed at Redford Barracks, Edinburgh, had set off back to base in his blue MGZR car at 2am after spending the night with his fiancee in Cornwall.

Fellow soldier Sean Symons, aged 22, from Redruth, who had served with him in Iraq, was a passenger in the car when it collided with the 7.5 tonne lorry being driven by Martin Crook and span off into a verge.

Mr Symons, who was asleep at the time of the incident, escaped without serious injuries but was admitted to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital for treatment. Lorry driver Mr Crook, from Bath, was uninjured.

Vehicle examiner William Holt said that the speedometer showed that Mr Cox was travelling no slower than 110 miles an hour when he impacted with the lorry. Pathologist Dr Jeremy Uff confirmed that Mr Cox died instantly of multiple injuries. No drugs or alcohol where found in his blood. Mr Crook also gave a negative roadside breath-test.

Collision investigation officer David Holland calculated that Mr Cox fell asleep in lane three and drifted through lane two, then into lane one, where the rumble strip on the hard shoulder awoke him too late to avoid hitting the lorry in front of him.

Gloucester coroner Alan Crickmore said that it was a "terrible coincidence" that the rumble strip had woken him when the lorry was just too close to avoid.

Mr Crickmore said that lessons could be learned from the tragedy and urged all drivers to ensure they were sufficiently rested before making long journeys and that regular rest stops were built into the route.