David Grindley, 27, of Higher Kinnerton, was rushed to the Countess of Chester Hospital on Tuesday, September 11 last year, at about 9.50pm, after a red Peugeot 205 driven by his wife flipped over on the A55 between Ewloe and Dobshill.

An inquest heard that Mr Grindley, who had married his wife Carla just four months earlier, had not been wearing his seatbelt and was thrown about 17 metres from the car.

He suffered severe brain and spinal injuries and spent nine days in intensive care, before his family made the decision to switch off his life support machine.

Mr Grindley, who worked as a grounds maintenance man, had struggled for many years with a drug problem.

After he met his wife in 2005, he made a conscious effort to combat his habit and refrained from taking drugs for about five months, from March to August 2007, after he travelled to Australia and underwent an operation to receive naltrexone implants, a treatment used to combat drug dependency.

Mr and Mrs Grindley married in Dodleston in May last year, shortly after Mrs Grindley became pregnant.

The inquest, held at Flint Magistrates Court yesterday, heard that Mr Grindley began to use drugs again in August, 2007, but was working hard to conquer his habit again and had signed up to begin a university course in drug management counselling at NEWI, Wrexham.

In a statement, his mother, Valerie Auckland, said: "On the night he died, he was in a great mood and was singing and really looking forward to the future.

"He really was not a drug addict – he was trying all the time to get off the drugs and he was really looking forward to moving on with his life.

"He was a very much loved only child and he will be sadly missed."

On the night of the crash, Mr Grindley had been to Tesco in Broughton and was travelling back to his mother's house as a passenger in the car being driven by his wife.

In an interview given by Mrs Grindley to police on Thursday, October 18 2007, she said Mr Grindley had asked her to drive him to Blacon to buy drugs.

She refused and he became angry and grabbed the wheel of the car, tugging it to the left.

Mrs Grindley was not prepared for this and lost control of the car, which then crashed into fencing at the side of the dual carriageway, before flipping onto its roof.

A statement from eyewitness, Dr Robert Powell Morris, said: "I was driving along the A55 towards Chester when I noticed the car overtaking me.

"After it had passed me, I noticed that it had begun to snake to the left and right, slightly at first and then more violently.

"It then veered towards an embankment at the side of the road and flipped over, and travelled about 50ft before it came to a stop.

"I stopped my car and got out and walked towards the car that had crashed and I looked inside and noticed a lady hanging upside down in the seat, held in by her seatbelt.

"I helped her out of the car and she said 'where is my boyfriend?', but I could not see anyone anywhere.

"I walked away from the car, back towards Ewloe and I had walked about 20 or 30ft when I heard a groaning noise and saw a man lying on his side on the embankment.

"It was clear that he was seriously injured and I asked another driver who had stopped to call an ambulance."

Mr Grindley was taken to hospital, where doctors carried out CT scans and x-rays, which confirmed he had little chance of survival and he died when his life support machine was switched off, at about 8.30pm on Thursday, September 20, 2007.

A post-mortem examination carried out by Dr Sally-Ann Hales, a pathologist at the Countess of Chester, determined the cause of death to be cerebral edema, an excess of water or fluid on the brain, and cerebral spine injuries, both of which were sustained as a result of the crash.

Mrs Grindley suffered only minor injuries and gave birth to a baby girl a few weeks afterwards.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, North East Wales coroner John Hughes said: "Mr Grindley had a bright future ahead of him and was clearly trying very hard to rid himself of drugs. Had Mr Grindley been wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash, then in all probability he would have suffered only minor injuries, as Mrs Grindley did. It is a tragic loss and a waste of a life."