MYSTERY continues to surround the death of a 'loving father' who died in a ‘catastrophic’ car crash.

Stuart Woodhouse was driving his black Ford Mondeo onto the A303 from the Hundred Acre Roundabout, in Andover, on February 27, when he lost control of his car at about 7.25am.

Mr Woodhouse, who worked in IT finance, struck a crash barrier before riding along the central reservation and hitting a road sign.

An inquest into his death at Winchester Coroner’s Court today (Thursday) heard that the 44-year-old’s car landed on its roof and became wedged between the post of the road sign and the crash barrier.

In a statement, witness Alexander Thomson said as he drove along the A303, he saw the Ford Mondeo drive onto the slip road. Mr Thomson decided to stay in the inside lane as he determined there was enough space for Mr Woodhouse, of Garrett Court, Oakley, to come onto the carriageway.

Mr Thomson, who was driving an Astra van, added that as the car swerved it then hit the barrier before going up into the air and dropping onto the ground.

“I presume the vehicle hit some ice before it lost control. The whole incident took a matter of seconds.”

Another witness Pamela Brown said she saw Mr Woodhouse swerve left in “quite a dramatic move” to correct his path before “taking off into the air”.

Forensic collision investigator Simon Brooks said the reason the crash occurred will “sadly never be known”, but within his examination he explored that Mr Woodhouse, as Mr Thomson suggested, slipped on black ice.

But Mr Brooks told the inquest that when he attended the scene it was not “slippery on foot” and the Highways Agency had gritted the stretch of road twice before the crash, which caused “catastrophic damage” to the car.

It was also investigated whether Mr Woodhouse spotted Mr Thomson 100 yards behind him and broke in an attempt to get behind the Astra van, before losing control of the Mondeo.

Fears were raised about the tyre pressure on Mr Woodhouse’s car, despite it undergoing an MOT the previous day, as these were under the legal limit, and though Mr Brooks said this would have made “recovery of control more difficult” it was not necessarily a cause of the crash.

A post-mortem found that Mr Woodhouse died of multiple injuries.

In a statement following his death, Mr Woodhouse's family said: “Stuart was a loving father, son, brother, uncle and friend, who was loved by all who knew him.

“He was a man who lived life to the full, brought joy to many and he will be sadly missed.”

Coroner Grahame Short concluded that Mr Woodhouse died as result of a road traffic collision, adding: “It does seem to me that Stuart saw the Astra van, identified it being there, was uncertain of its speed and broke in reaction of that.”

He added that the reasons as to why Mr Woodhouse lost control had not been established.