A MOTORIST killed in an early hours' collision may have been travelling in the wrong direction on the A1(M).

Traces of three different drugs were later found in samples taken from the body of Collin Walker, an inquest heard.

His red Nissan Almera was involved in what appeared to be a head-on crash with a Ford Transit on the northbound carriageway, between Durham and Chester-le-Street, on Monday, January 13.

The hearing was told that 28-year-old Mr Walker was found slumped across the driver's seat of the Almera and did not appear to have been wearing a seatbelt.

He was confirmed dead at the scene by paramedics, while van driver Jason Moore was taken to Durham's University Hospital of North Durham, suffering a broken sternum and five spinal fractures.

Mr Moore, from Washington, Wearside, was heading northbound, back home from a depot in Lincoln, but has no memory of the accident.

The inquest, in Durham, was told there were no witnesses to the collision, although a car passenger reported seeing a red Almera emerging erratically from a service station on to the northbound carriageway of the A1(M), near Scotch Corner, late on the Sunday night.

Mr Walker, from Abercrombie, Scotland, was staying at the time with his brother, Scott, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, where he was working as a chef.

Both Scott and Mr Walker's girlfriend, Nicola Dawn Garvey, a student in Stockton, said he suffered from depression.

Toxological tests revealed Ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis in his system.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, North Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle said the drug combination was incompatible with safe driving, and may well have been a factor in the incident.