A young woman was crushed to death by her own car when she stopped to pick up her mother for a family party in High Wycombe.

Sameha Mahmood, 25, suffered multiple injuries when her BMW – with her young daughter strapped into the back seat - rolled back down the steep driveway of her mother’s home in Whitelands Road on the evening on December 23 last year.

Despite desperate efforts from family and neighbours to get the car off Sameha, who worked in a pharmacy, she was pronounced dead by paramedics at 8.50pm.

The young mother, who lived in Bassetsbury Lane with her husband Waqas and her daughter, had driven to pick up her mum, Zahida Akhtar, to go to her auntie’s birthday celebration. She called her mum when she arrived at the house and asked her to go outside when she was ready.

In a statement read out at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court in Beaconsfield today, Mrs Akhtar said she walked out the front door to see her daughter’s shoes on the driveway – but Sameha was nowhere to be seen.

She said: “Her car was in the middle of the road but I couldn’t see her. I was shouting her name, I was worried for her. Then two men who were in the road suggested I look under the car for her - I saw her hair. She wasn’t breathing. I was screaming and crying for help.”

Upon hearing her screams, Mrs Akhtar’s sons, Usman and Asad came rushing out to help.

Usman Mahmood said he was upstairs in his bedroom when he heard a thud outside that sounded like “someone dropping a wheelie bin” followed by a scream. He looked outside but could not see anything.

He said: “I saw a man outside and at first I thought he was attacking my mum, but then she was screaming ‘save my daughter’ and then I saw my sister under the car between the wheels. She was laying still, she didn’t respond to me.

“The next part is a blur but I was calling everyone to help. We couldn’t seem to get the car off her.”

Neighbours and family members tried to lift up the car with bricks and trolley jacks to get the car off Sameha before the emergency services arrived.

PC Steven Williams, who arrived at the scene shortly after, said he suspected the car had rolled backwards down the “steep slope” of the driveway.

Paramedics managed to get Sameha out from under the car before the fire brigade arrived and started CPR, but she had devastating crush injuries to her chest and they were unable to save her.

An examination of the vehicle after the crash found that the brakes and the handbrake were in good working order and there were no mechanical defects with the vehicle that could have contributed to the crash.

Andrew Evans, collision investigator, said that when the vehicle was first found, it was not in gear and the handbrake was not on.

He said: “Sameha either failed to set the handbrake or didn’t sufficiently apply it and she was run over. Whether she got out of the car to go to the boot or attend to her baby, or she ran behind the vehicle when she realised it was rolling backwards to try and stop it, I don’t know. But she was round the back of the vehicle when she was run over.”

A post-mortem found Sameha died of multiple injuries. She was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol.

Alison McCormick, assistant coroner, said: “The only conclusion is that she failed to apply the handbrake sufficiently or at all. There is no way of knowing the exact sequence of events or why she was round the back of the car. It is just speculation because there is no evidence or CCTV.”

A conclusion of road traffic collision was recorded.