A couple who had been married for 51 years died after their car veered onto the wrong side of the road and into an oncoming vehicle.
Peter and Kathleen Darby, both 69, were on a Sunday drive on the B1108 when the head-on crash occurred.
An inquest into their death was unable to establish why their Renault Kadjar had been in the wrong lane when it hit a black Range Rover travelling in the opposite direction, near Bodney, on August 18.
The hearing, at Norwich Coroner’s Court, was told the couple, from Scoulton, near Watton, had been planning a takeaway with family later that day.
Mr Darby, a retired carpenter and former magistrate, was driving, with Mrs Darby, a former teacher, a passenger.
They had been travelling towards Swaffham to visit family when the crash occurred.
The former childhood sweethearts had four daughters, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In a statement, the family said: “Our one small mercy is that they died together and never had to experience life without one another.”
Police investigated the sightings but concluded that it was not the same vehicle that was involved in the collision, which was an older model.
Samantha Goward, the coroner, described this as a “pure coincidence”.
Leave a Reply