Driver error is believed to be the cause of a road accident in which a woman was killed, it was ruled this week.

An inquest has been held into the death of Shirley Ison, 52, who was travelling northbound between Dalham and Gazeley, near Newmarket, along Gazeley Road when the crash happened last year.

The inquest, which was held in Bury St Edmunds on Monday, heard Mrs Ison’s BMW left the road and collided with a tree on November 27, with her death confirmed at the scene at 7.03pm.

Pc Richard Godden, a forensic collision investigator with Suffolk police, said there had been substantial damage to the car’s offside.

He said the vehicle’s wheels entering the soft verge had caused it to rotate and, as impact was made with the tree, it was “whipped” around it, with the car left facing the opposite direction.

In the absence of any other explanation for the crash, Pc Godden said: “I can only conclude an error by the driver caused the loss of control. I’m unable to determine precisely what that error was.”

Assistant coroner Dr Dan Sharpstone concluded the cause of death of Mrs Ison, from Chatteris in Cambridgeshire, was that of a road traffic collision.