GAZETTE & HERALD: Widow Diana Hodgson has launched a campaign for a pedestrian crossing in Curzon Street, Calne, following the death of her husband Frank, who collided with a Ford Transit van while popping out for a newspaper.

Coroner Richard van Oppen recorded a verdict of accidental death at an inquest at Chippenham Magistrates Court yesterday.

Francis Hodgson, of Oldbury Way, Curzon Park, was 82 when he died at the scene of the accident on October 10 last year.

In a statement, Mrs Hodgson said her husband worked at a quarry before his retirement, an occupation that led to him suffering hearing difficulties.

The driver of the Transit van, Kevin Brake, told the inquest in a statement he was used to driving in Calne and familiar with the van. At 8.30am he was driving in Curzon Street, in heavy traffic with a queue of vehicles in the opposite lane.

He saw a lorry in the queue of on-coming traffic, and behind it the head and shoulders of an elderly man looking out.

Mr Brake said he slowed down but the elderly man seemed to stumble, falling forward into the path of the van.

Senior Aircraftman Luke Greenhorn was a passenger in a Land Rover waiting in the traffic queue behind the lorry. In a statement he said he saw Mr Hodgson walk across the road between the Land Rover and the lorry.

Mr Hodgson stopped at the back corner of the lorry and began leaning forward to try and see across the rest of the road. "I had the impression he could not see anything and almost gambolled so he could get across," said Mr Greenhorn.

He said Mr Hodgson saw the van approaching and stumbled and fell directly in the path of the van.

The service personnel and a nurse, Susan Levy, who was in the traffic queue, went to Mr Hodgson's aid. They noticed he was wearing his hearing aid. But Mr Hodgson did not regain consciousness and died at the scene.

The Ford Transit was examined and found to be in good order, and the driver's speed was calculated to be between 17mph and 23mph.

After the inquest Mrs Hodgson and her stepdaughter Margaret Morgan appealed for a pedestrian crossing to be installed in Curzon Street.

"There is no place to cross in Curzon Street, and if there had been this might never have happened," said Mrs Hodgson.

She will be writing to Wiltshire County Council to urge it to act, because of the large number of elderly people living in Curzon Park, as well as families on the new Lansdowne Park estate and children at the schools in Curzon Street.