A MOTHER of two children was killed in a car crash due to a lethal combination of a defective tyre and a wet road, an inquest was told.

Susan Marshall died when the family car skidded on rainwater, careered off the carriageway down a grass verge, and ploughed into a tree.

The 27-year-old, from Shepherd Street, Northfleet, was travelling with her partner and two children when their car skidded.

Her partner John Elderton was behind the wheel at the time.

Miraculously Mr Elderton and the couple’s two-month-old baby boy George and six-year-old daughter Samantha escaped with minor cuts and bruises.

An inquest heard how the white Vauxhall Cavalier had aquaplaned on rainwater that had collected because leaves had blocked roadside drains.

The four were travelling coastbound at a little below the 70mph speed limit on the Thanet Way in heavy rain on Sunday afternoon, October 22, 2006.

Witnesses described seeing the Vauxhall lose control, swerve one way and then the other before going over the side embankment.

A distraught Mr Elderton, of Swalecliffe, Whitstable, told the inquest: "It happened so quick. The back of the car just went out to the left.

"I tried to steer but it wasn’t doing anything. Then the car came back round and we were facing the grass verge."

The car slid down the embankment, through a hedge and hit a tree before coming to rest in a field. The front passenger side of the car had taken nearly all the impact, and Miss Marshall was killed instantly.

PC Adam Maxfield, forensic collision investigator, said leaves and silt had collected on top of a drain cover.

But the officer also said one of the car’s tyres was worn.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Rebecca Cobb said the depth of tyre tread and pool of water had combined fatally.