THE aunt of a student killed in a crash at a notorious accident blackspot says the accident should never have happened.

Janet Blainey spoke out after attending an inquest on 19-year-old Rachelle Ansell, who was in a crash at Bilbrough Top, on the A64 between York and Tadcaster.

Witnesses told the Selby inquest how Rachelle's mother, Josyane, had driven through a gap in the central reservation, straight into the path of a coach travelling at more than 60 mph on the westbound carriageway.

Coach driver Jeff Franks braked sharply but had no chance of taking any evasive action and struck the car side-on. "It just shot across in front of me," he said. "To me, it was a complete misjudgement."

Mrs Ansell had been in the central reservation for about five minutes, waiting for a gap in the heavy flow of fast-moving traffic on the westbound carriageway before pulling out, the inquest heard.

Rachelle, a front-seat passenger, who was being taken from London to university in Edinburgh, suffered head injuries and a ruptured spleen.

The Highways Agency decided in the late 1990s to leave the gap open until a flyover was built, despite an Evening Press readers' petition, handed to Roads Minister Lord Whitty in 1999, calling for immediate closure on safety grounds.

Janet said that if the gap had been shut as demanded, her niece could still be alive.

"The accident could never have happened," she said, claiming that safety should have been the agency's first priority.

Coroner Geoff Fell, recording a verdict of accidental death, said it was his second inquest into fatal accidents at the junction in the last couple of months. "There is no doubt that this is an unsafe junction," he said.

The Highways Agency has justified keeping the gap by saying it had to balance road safety benefits against social and commercial disadvantages to residents and businesses.

A spokeswoman said today it hoped construction work on the flyover could start by the end of June, at which point the gap would be closed

Updated: 10:42 Thursday, April 24, 2003