A MOTHER last week relived the terrifying seconds before a car crash that killed her two children.

Alison Brooker told an inquest how she hit a patch of ice as she braked to avoid a car that she believed was heading towards her.

As she fought to control her Fiat Punto, it then careered across the road into the path of the other car.

"One can only imagine the desperate struggle Mrs Brooker will have gone through to regain control of the vehicle," Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said on Friday as he recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mrs Brooker had to be cut free from the wreckage by Knutsford firemen, but her two children, Alexander, 8, and Niamh, 5, both died.

On Friday it emerged that another driver had lost control of his car on the same patch of ice as he drove to work that morning.

"It (the accident) knocked me for six because it was at the same point I experienced difficulties," said self-employed builder Robert Cook.

Dreadful

He told the hearing that he now drove more carefully since the accident in Cann Lane, Aston-by-Budworth, on December 5.

On the day of the crash Richard Beal had moved out to overtake a car that was travelling at about 40mph.

Last week the computer consultant from Northwich told the coroner that he had completed the manoeuvre before the collision. But Christine Golden, who was driving the car that Mr Beal overtook, said she could not believe he had tried to get past her.

"I couldn't believe that this person was overtaking me," she said.

"Then there was an almighty bang and there were bits everywhere."

A farm worker heard the crash, pieces of debris hitting the side of his family home and ran to investigate.

In a statement to the court Daniel Jackson said he saw Mrs Brooker unconscious and slumped over her steering wheel. Mrs Golden was crying.

On Friday Mrs Brooker, 38, and husband Steve, 43, who live in Wrenshot Lane, High Legh, were at Macclesfield Town Hall for the hearing.

As he recorded his verdict, Mr Rheinberg said: "By dreadful coincidence the driver of the car was confronted by what appeared to her to be a difficult or dangerous situation almost exactly when she came across an icy patch."