A UNIVERSITY graduate who had just qualified as a teacher died instantly when his high powered sports car swerved into an oncoming car at 96mph and shattered into 26 pieces, an inquest heard last week.

Police accident investigator PC Peter Edwards said: "This was the worst damage I have ever seen to a car in all the 19 years I have been doing this job."

Adrian Harvey's two-year-old Lotus Elise car was cut in half in the collision on the A419 Cirencester-to-Stroud road on April 3.

The two halves were left held together by just two cables, the inquest in Tewkesbury was told.

Jane Harvey said her son, the eldest of four children, had qualified with a degree in computer aided design and after working for a national chain store he had decided to become a teacher.

Mr Harvey, aged 29, of Church Walk North, Swindon, had spent a year studying at the University of Gloucestershire and had just taken his final exams before he died.

His fiancee, Joanne Davies, told the inquest they had been childhood sweethearts since he was 15 and they were at school together. They had lived together for the past four years, she said.

They planned to marry in August next year.

Before he died he had been carrying out work experience at Deerhurst School, near Tewkesbury and had been offered a permanent job at Rednock School.

They had bought the black Lotus car two years ago from a Cheltenham dealer.

On the day he died he saw her off to work and took the Lotus, which he normally drove at weekends, to travel to Cheltenham.

"He was a careful driver," she said. "Though he occasionally, like most of us, broke the speed limit he would never drive too fast."

Rodney Lewis, 67, of Shortwood Green, Nailsworth, told the court he was driving his Mitsubishi Galant in the opposite direction when he came to a bend on the A419 near Bathurst Lodge.

"There was something black came in front of me and that is all I can remember until I came to," he said.

PC Edwards said that the front of Mr Lewis' car had been severely damaged in the collision with the Lotus.

Michael Bass, a van driver who was behind Mr Lewis, told the court:

"Something black came in the opposite direction and for no apparent reason at all it swung in front of the Mitsubishi.

"I braked and swerved but I remember the car broke up and bits came flying at my windscreen."

PC Edwards told the inquest that he estimated Mr Harvey had struck the oncoming car at 96mph.

"The seat belt snapped and this is the only time I have ever seen that happen in an accident," he said.

"The driver was thrown out at such a heavy rate that he could not possibly have survived this accident."

The accident investigator then told the court: "I found a dip on Mr Harvey's side of the road which would have markedly affected his stability when he drove over it at speed.

"It would appear that directly after encountering the dip the Lotus driver lost control.

"There were faint tyre marks on the road which showed that he was breaking immediately before he struck the other car."

Prof Neil Shepherd, consultant pathologist, told the court Mr Harvey died from internal injuries when he was thrown out of his car and before he struck the road.

Verdict: accidental death.