A WIDOW heard “a sound like a gunshot” as a tailgate that fell off a van on the A12 smashed through their car windscreen and hit her husband.

Rene Vargas, a director at Colchester-based development charity Lepra, died of head injuries suffered in the accident, an inquest heard yesterday.

His wife, Katy Vargas, who was six months pregnant at the time, described the journey with her husband on November 29, 2008.

She said: “I was looking down at my lap to read and didn’t see anything.

“I only became aware something was happening when the windscreen smashed, with a sound like a gunshot.

“It took me time to understand what had happened. My initial thought was that he was dead and I was too shocked to do anything.”

Mrs Vargas grabbed the steering wheel and guided the car into the central barrier, where it stopped.

She continued: “I became aware my husband was conscious and trying to turn off the ignition and put the brake on.

“I tried to do that for him so he wasn’t struggling.”

Mr Vargas, 47, died three days later in Queen’s Hospital, Romford.

Andrew Collier was a passenger in a car travelling behind the couple’s Vauxhall Zafira and described seeing several cars hit an object in the road.

He said: “A car in the outside lane hit it and it went across the road and another car hit it in the inside lane.

“The object appeared to go up in the air and disappeared in front of the Zafira.

“I didn’t see a collision, but the car slowed down and stopped. As I looked back I could see the object embedded in its windscreen.”

Several motorists contacted the police to say they had seen or hit something on the road, near Stanway.

Jacqueline Moore saw a large object coming towards her “like an arrow” before it hit the rear passenger side of her car.

Jason Vertudaches felt his van “shudder” after hitting what he thought was a block of foam.

Gemma Rollings reported seeing an object fall off a Ford Transit van as it overtook her car.

She said: “I had just looked to my side and saw something come off the back of the van. I saw it bounce back along the road, but not hit any vehicles.”

Police traced the van to the Network Rail depot in Marks Tey. After a forensic examination, the object was identified as the van’s tailgate, which had fallen off because of a broken hinge.

The driver, Gareth Jones, of Appleton Mews, Colchester, appeared at the inquest, but did not answer questions.

Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray recorded that Mr Vargas, of Irvine Road, Colchester, died as a result of a road traffic collision.

Mrs Vargas declined to comment after the hearing.