A FACTORY worker died after his car skidded on ice and turned upside-down into a water-filled ditch, an inquest has heard.Marcello Ferriera Da-Costa, 37, of Audley Street, Great Yarmouth, who was described by his brother as a “safe driver”, was found in an upturned car in a ditch next to the A143 Beccles Road in Haddiscoe on February 20, 2010.

A FACTORY worker died after his car skidded on ice and turned upside-down into a water-filled ditch, an inquest has heard.

Marcello Ferriera Da-Costa, 37, of Audley Street, Great Yarmouth, who was described by his brother as a “safe driver”, was found in an upturned car in a ditch next to the A143 Beccles Road in Haddiscoe on February 20, 2010.

The Bernard Matthews worker, who lived with his partner of three years and his two children, had crashed on his way to work at about 6am.

An inquest held yesterday heard how police had found tyre scuff marks on the road, a scrape on the kerb and tyre tracks on the grass verge leading to the ditch.

There were no witnesses to the crash, and a post-mortem examination determined the cause of death to be drowning.

PC Wendy Biddle confirmed the road was not gritted at the time of the crash, and said: “The reason why the loss of control started is unknown. However, the prevailing road conditions would have exacerbated any driver error.”

The family raised concerns about the lack of gritting on the road, but were told by the police that the route was one the council had been planning to grit that day, but had not done so by the early morning when the crash happened.

Coroner William Armstrong recorded a verdict of death by road traffic collision and said: “For whatever reason, Marcello lost control of his car, which left the road to its offside and then came to rest upside down in a ditch, and sadly he drowned as a consequence.

“It seems more than likely the adverse weather conditions were at the very least a major contributing factor in what happened.”