AN accident which claimed the lives of five members of one County Durham family happened just months after another crash at the same location.

An inquest, which began at Cleethorpes Town Hall on Thursday, heard evidence of a single-vehicle accident on the same stretch of the A18 in Lincolnshire where five members of the Cockburn family from Ouston, near Chester-le-Street, were killed in April 2013.

Dean Cockburn, the only surviving child of David and Angela Cockburn, who also lost his sisters Bethany and Carley Ann and niece Lacie Jade in the tragedy near Laceby, was among those who went to the site, near Grimsby, on Thursday.

The visit was organised by the coroner who also invited legal representatives and highways officials to the scene.

Natasha Peart told the inquest on Friday how she veered off the road on January 10, 2013, and lost control due to a gully on the left-hand verge.

Her Fiat 500 ended up in a hedge on the opposite carriageway, narrowly missing a line of cars.

She had been dazzled by the lights of an oncoming lorry, she said.

She was driving to her work at the Halfway House, in North Thoresby, at around 6.15pm, when the crash happened.

Crash investigator PC Mark Boyd, now retired, told how he inspected the carriageway but did not see a gully.

He said if he had seen any defects in the road, or potholes, he would have ordered the closure of the road until repairs were carried out.

On Thursday, the inquest was told how the impact between the family car carrying the Cockburn family and a lorry was so severe that whether they were wearing seatbelts or not "would have made no difference".

Giving evidence, pathologist Martin Peters said seatbelts can reduce the risk of fatal and severe injury by between 30 and 40 per cent.

He said: "Generally you are better off wearing a seatbelt than not. A three point harness reduces the risk by 30 to 40 per cent. But it depends on the impact. I do not think the wearing or not would have made a difference here."

He gave post mortem examination evidence into the deaths of Angela Cockburn, 49, and David Cockburn, 48, who died in the head-on crash in April 2013 along with their daughter Bethany, 18, and one-year-old granddaughter Lacie Jade Stephenson and the couple's older daughter, Carley Ann, 21.

They died after their Nissan Primera collided with a westbound lorry.

Pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said Angela Cockburn had died from multiple injuries.

He said she also had injuries consistent with wearing a seatbelt.

Dr Peters said baby Lacie Jade Stephenson, one, who was in a rear child seat, had died from multiple injuries.

Asked by coroner, Paul Kelly, whether the injuries sustained by the infant suggested if she was wearing a restraint, Dr Peters said there were injuries which "could have been due to the seatbelt restraint".

He said the baby's mother Bethany, 18, died from multiple injuries.

The coroner also asked about injuries that could actually have been caused to Bethany by her wearing a seatbelt.

Dr Peters said that would have made "no difference".

Bethany's sister, Carley Ann Cockburn died from a head injury, the inquest heard.

Their father, David Cockburn, 48, died from multiple injuries, told Dr Peters.

The inquest continues.