A mother-of-two who was killed in a head-on collision with a bus did not crash deliberately, a coroner has ruled.

Jessica Vallins, of Homestead Way, New Addington, collided with a single decker 130 bus as she drove along her road just after midnight on August 3 last year.

How we reported the crash last August:
Fatal bus crash victim was brilliant mum of two who loved life more than anybody

She was pronounced dead at the scene an hour later despite paramedics fighting to save her.

The inquest into her death at Croydon Coroner's Court this afternoon heard she was highly emotional, angry and intoxicated when she got behind the wheel.

Your Local Guardian:
Flowers, balloons and tributes were left at the site of the crash

Coroner Selena Lynch told the court there had been rumours circulating that Mrs Vallins had driven into the bus deliberately.

The findings of the collision investigator Victoria Eyers showed this was not the case.

She had found skid marks which had come from the 39-year-old's Hyundai and from the bus, meaning both vehicles had braked to try and avoid crashing.

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, Miss Lynch said: "I have got to decide how Mrs Vallins came by her death.

"I think there might be a suspicion that this was somehow deliberate in view of some of the problems of her past.

"There's no suggestion whatsoever that she was trying to go head on into a large vehicle in order to end her own life.

"Rumour and suspicion can be laid to rest.

"She was highly emotional, angry and intoxicated.

"Although we have got this background of self harm, she was braking at the time.

"The only appropriate verdict is one of accidental death. I do not think there was anything deliberate at all."