A PEDESTRIAN aged 93 was killed, could have been confused about which traffic lights he should have been looking at, an inquest heard. Frederick Turrell from Queensway Soham was waiting at the Puffin crossing near the Co-op in Soham High Street at 9.45am

A PEDESTRIAN aged 93 was killed, could have been confused about which traffic lights he should have been looking at, an inquest heard.

Frederick Turrell from Queensway Soham was waiting at the Puffin crossing near the Co-op in Soham High Street at 9.45am on December 5 last year when he stepped out just as the traffic lights had turned green to allow traffic to continue.

The hearing heard that if Mr Turrell had not been so fit and sprightly he would not have been fast enough to have collided with the car.

Later in Addenbrooke's Hospital, he told his son, Peter, that he had been convinced the pedestrian lights were green.

However, the inquest heard that the new Puffin crossing in Soham High Street has the pedestrian lights half way up the pole facing the pavement, not on top of the pole - where Mr Turrell might have expected them.

After the hearing his son said his father might well have been confused. Mr Peter Turrell said: "My dad was very fit, he did three people's gardens and he would travel about to Ely and Newmarket. He cycled until two years ago. I am sure, he would have made it to 100."

Mr Turrell, a grandfather and retired pig farmer, died in Addenbrooke's Hospital on December 19. Coroner Belinda Cheney said several witnesses had seen Mr Turrell step off the pavement into the path of car.

Witness Jeanette Fuller said he knew Mr Turrell by sight. She had seen him over a number of years walking or on his motor scooter. She saw him step "straight out into the path of a silver car." She said she could not understand why he had not seen or heard the car. "The driver had no chance to avoid him."

The collision investigator for the police, Chris Breeze said the silver Fiesta, driven by Matthew Fisk, 21, from Soham, had been moving at a speed of between 11 and 13mph and had been driven extremely cautiously. The driver had braked hard within seconds but even at that speed "by the time you have seen it, it has happened."

Mr Breeze said the sun was low in the sky, there was glare from the wet road and it would have been difficult for the driver to see Mr Turrell, though Mr Turrell would have had a clear view of the car.

Ms Cheney recorded a verdict of death by a road traffic accident.