AN INQUEST heard how there was simply not enough time for a driver to avoid hitting a farm worker who died following a collision outside Raglan last year.

Marian Edward Ollender, 46, died after being hit by a car on his walk home at around 12.15am on June 3, 2013, on the B4598.

PC Wyatt of Gwent police presented the findings of his investigation to Gwent’s deputy coroner, Wendy James, in Newport yesterday.

He had been called to the accident scene, around three quarters of a mile from the Raglan roundabout, at 1.55am.

PC Wyatt explained the driver had become aware of a person in the road from 15 to 20 metres away, after driving out from a sweeping right-hand bend. Driving at 45mph on the 60mph road, he said the driver would have been travelling 20 metres per second, so would have only had a second to react.

He said the driver of the Citreon C2 had applied her brakes and swerved in attempt to avoid Mr Olender, but it was too late.

There were no footpaths or street lights to add to the driver’s visibility and Mr Olender was wearing dark clothes.

PC Wyatt said: “It was sheer darkness.”

The inquest heard how the Polish born worker had been to two nearby pubs in Raglan on the night of his death.

Police had spoken to the licence holder of one of the pubs who had described him as intoxicated and staggering as she last saw him walking off toward the Raglan roundabout.

Mr Olender’s employer from the farm where he worked and lived, Barbara Jones gave evidence at the inquest to confirm she had been the one to formally identify the body after the farm worker’s death.

Mr Olender’s son was in court to hear the inquest. His family in Poland, who later buried Mr Olender in his hometown of Dolnyslask, previously paid tribute to him saying he was a "great father and husband".

A post mortem examination found the cause of death to be the result of trauma to the head and thorax.

The coroner concluded the cause of death to be as a result of a road traffic collision.