AN engineer died under a hail of bricks after his wife's car collided with an articulated lorry.

An inquest at Harrogate, North Yorkshire, heard that Jesse Jackson, a project engineer at the United States spy base at Menwith Hill, was on his way home to Low Laithe, in Nidderdale, last September when the accident happened.

His wife, Ann, was driving the couple's Toyota when it turned into the path of the lorry as she turned right off the A59 Harrogate to Skipton road on to Cold Cotes Road.

The trailer jack-knifed and shed its load of at least 200 bricks on to the car, killing Mr Jackson instantly.

Mr Jackson also played guitar in a local rock band, No Way Out.

Lorry driver Thomas Tarn said he had been on his way from Lancaster to Newcastle. He said: "It never stopped, it just swung straight across.

"The Toyota stopped across the road as if she had seen me at the last minute. By this point I was already out of control."

Accident investigator PC Mike Natt said all the evidence pointed to Mr Tarn being right on the junction as Mrs Jackson started to turn, so she should have seen the lorry.

Coroner Geoff Fell recorded a verdict of accidental death.