THE driver of a runaway lorry which smashed into an estate agents, killing two mothers, has told how he desperately attempted to slow the vehicle after its brakes failed on Amersham Hill, High Wycombe.

The horrific series of events was revealed last Friday at the High Wycombe inquest into the accident. It heard how driver Martin Fahey, of Bedford, was unable to stop the 36 tonne lorry which ploughed into the window of Aitchisons, killing negotiator Maggie Doel and customer Sally Jamieson on June 14 last year.

The inquest also heard how the lorry brakes were later found to be defective.

In a statement read out by PC Gerald Byrne, of Thames Valley Police, Mr Fahey, who was in court, recalled the moments immediately before the crash.

Mr Fahey said: "I pressed the brakes nothing there; released it again still nothing there.

"The pedal went right to the floor so I reached for the handbrake and pulled the handbrake on and nothing whatsoever happened and the lorry is gradually picking up speed now."

In the statement given to police in the aftermath of the tragedy, Mr Fahey told how he started sounding his horn and flashing his lights as the HGV careered out of control down the steep hill.

The lorry smashed into a BMW before reaching the junction between Crendon Street and Easton Street where it failed to negotiate the bend ploughing into Aitchisons.

Mr Fahey explained his reaction as the lorry finally came to rest: "I knew exactly where I was, I knew I was in a shop and I knew I had caused a lot of carnage."

Estate agent Royston Davis broke down in tears as he recalled the moment that mother-of-three Mrs Doel, 48, of Main Road, Lacey Green, and Mrs Jamieson, 40, a sales director of Wycombe Road, Stokenchurch, who had two young children, were hit by the runaway lorry.

Mr Davis, of Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, had to have his statement read out by the coroner's officer as he tried to hold back the tears.

He told the court he had just greeted a customer, who he later found out was Mrs Jamieson, when he heard the sounds of an accident outside the shop.

He added: "I assumed it was another accident outside the office and the next instant the lorry came through the window.

"I remember seeing the trailer go past me which seemed to last forever."

Mr Fahey told police that he was in fourth gear out of 12 as he came down the hill, but James Paterson, an accident analyst working for Thames Valley Police, told the court that the lorry had been found to be in eighth gear when it was examined after the smash.

He added the brakes on the vehicle had been found to be poorly adjusted, and were too inefficient to bring it to a halt.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Buckinghamshire coroner Richard Hulett, said: "The brakes were defective in a number of serious respects."

He added that a verdict of accidental death did not mean there was no blame to be attached, but it was the only verdict available to a coroner's court in this case.

Three people, including Mr Fahey, have been reported for allegedly exceeding the weight limit for a lorry of that type and using a vehicle with defective brakes. They are due to appear in court next month.