A WILMSLOW TRUCKER who accidentally crushed an elderly woman to death with his lorry had heroically saved a man's life just hours before.

Aiden Molloy, 41, told an inquest he had pulled a driver from the burning wreckage of a car at Birmingham services on the M6 the evening before pensioner, Else Hathaway, was dragged to her death under the wheels of his truck.

Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded a verdict of accidental death for the 84-year-old, who was killed instantly as she crossed at the lights on Park Street in Macclesfield at 10.17am on Tuesday, January 6.

Mrs Hathaway, a grandmother, was on her way to do some shopping with her trolley and walking stick when she was hit by the 37 ton red Leyland Daff truck driven by Mr Molloy of Milbank Grove.

Witnesses said she frantically hit the high cab with her stick but was pulled under the wheels.

Mr Molloy said in a police interview: "I looked in my mirrors and then disengaged the handbrake and pulled forward.

"I felt a rock on the truck and at first thought I had gone over a brick or something. I looked in my mirrors but couldn't see anything. I pulled off but then a guy just ran out waving his hands. I stopped and he said 'You've killed her'. I looked back and saw the last two rolls of the woman's body in the middle of the road.

"I didn't go up to the body, I just stayed away. I pulled the lorry into a bus stop and that's where I stayed until the two police officers arrived."

When questioned about the earlier incident, he said he had pulled into Hilton Park services and spotted an MPV car that had come in too fast, rolled a few times on a sharp bend and hit a concrete barrier. He parked his truck and went running back.

"By this time the vehicle was well alight. There were a couple of guys standing about and I said 'you were lucky to get out of that'.

"They said they hadn't been in it. I ran up to the car and looked through the back. I saw a man in there still restrained by his seatbelt and semi-concious. It was burning so I kicked through the sun roof and dragged him out through it.

"It was shocking to realise that someone was in there and people were just standing around watching."

A kindhearted churchgoer, Mrs Hathaway, of Harry Lawson Court in Macclesfield, had lived through the horror of being held prisoner in a Japanese concentration camp during World War Two.

Witness Alan Burgess was sitting in his van in the left-hand lane by the lights next to the truck, which was in the right-hand lane waiting to turn right into Mill Lane.

He saw Mrs Hathaway press the demand button and begin to cross from the left. The lights were on red but changed to green for traffic as she set off. He waited for her to cross in front of his vehicle before setting off.

Patricia Brocklehurst, Mrs Hathaway's daughter, told the inquest: "Mum was blind in her right eye and had partial sight in her left. She had back problems that caused her to walk with a stoop. She used a walking stick, but walked well.

"Mum wouldn't cross the road if traffic was going; she would only go when it was at a standstill. She wouldn't have gone out into the road if traffic was flowing. She would have thought the lights were with her."

Police crash scene investigators reconstructed the accident and concluded that it was possible Mr Molloy simply couldn't see 5ft2in Mrs Hathaway from the high cab.

Mr Rheinberg said: "Mrs Hathaway died in the circumstances explained at Park Lane on January 6, 2004, as a result of 1A multiple injuries and my verdict is that she died as a result of an accident."

Phone records showed that Mr Molloy had not been talking on his mobile at the time.

Mrs Hathaway, who was born in Java in Indonesia, was married twice, both times to British Army officers, before moving to England in 1947, where she brought up her family of seven children and worked as a clerical worker.

She moved to Macclesfield after she was widowed to be closer to two of her children and became a tireless charity worker in the community, helping the RNIB, Macclesfield Disabled Society and St Alban's Church.

The tragedy mirrors that of a fatal road accident in Alderley Edge, in July 2003, when pensioner, Marion Wilkinson, 83, of Mobberley, died after being dragged under the wheels of a similar red Leyland Daff lorry as she crossed London Road.