A TERRIFIED woman passenger took over control of a car after the driver suffered a fatal heart attack.

June Baxter leaned over from the back seat as the Vauxhall Cavalier careered towards a young boy standing at a bus stop in Kearsley.

The car swerved away from the pavement but gained speed with the driver's foot still on the accelerator.

Mrs Baxter managed to overtake a vehicle and miss a set of bollards but then crashed into the back of a Renault.

The car then mounted the pavement and hit a pensioner, a Bolton inquest was told.

Retired pig farmer Norman Alexander, aged 86, of Lindley Drive, Kearsley, suffered massive injuries and died at the scene near the Antelope pub in Bolton Road.

The inquest was told that the accident happened in April after Mrs Baxter had been shopping in Farnworth.

She was met by her partner, 52-year-old John Westhead, who complained of suffering from indigestion. But as they were heading back towards their home in Pilkington Road, Kearsley, Mr Westhead suddenly slumped back in the driver's seat saying: "I'm going. I'm going."

Mrs Baxter, who was sitting in the car's back seat, told the inquest she then reached forward and slapped his face to try to bring him round.

As the car hurtled towards a bus stop, where an eight-year-old boy was standing, Mrs Baxter grabbed the steering wheel and swerved the vehicle away from the child, before overtaking a car travelling in front, pulling onto the wrong side of the road to avoid bollards. But the inquest was told that her luck then ran out and the Cavalier hit another car, mounted the pavement and scraped along the walls of houses before ploughing into the back of war veteran Mr Alexander.

Pathologist Dr Stephen Wells revealed that Mr Westhead had suffered a fatal heart attack.

Dr Wells said Mr Westhead had previously suffered two other heart attacks but had not sought medical treatment.

The driver of the Renault Megane sent spinning across the road after being hit by the Cavalier was 46-year-old Yvonne Partington. She was uninjured but her car was badly damaged.

Mrs Baxter and Mr Alexander's granddaughter, Shelley Alexander, sat side by side comforting each other in court as coroner Aidan Cotter recorded verdicts of death by natural causes on Mr Westhead and accidental death on Mr Alexander.

Mr Cotter praised Mrs Baxter for the efforts she made to control the vehicle before her "luck ran out".

"June Baxter had the almost impossible task of trying to steer the vehicle from the back seat," he said.

"It is so sad that Mr Alexander, after all he had done in his life, was struck from behind in a million to one accident like this."

After the inquest Mr Alexander's granddaughter said no one was to blame for the accident and she also praised Mrs Baxter's actions.

She said: "I have nothing but sympathy for her. It was just a freak accident."