A community nurse, whose erratic driving led to his death in a car crash, had taken drugs identical to those prescribed for some of his terminally-ill patients, an inquest heard yesterday.

Popular and respected nurse Martin Coomber, 42, died on duty when his Volkwagen Polo collided with a Peugeot van in Glastonbury.

Painkilling and sedative drugs morphine and midazalan were found in his bloodstream, and one empty ampule of diamorphine hydrochloride and of midazalan were found in the passenger door pocket of his car, together with syringes and needles.

An inquest into his death heard yesterday that his GP Richard Hughes had confirmed Mr Coomber had not been prescribed either drug.

An investigation by Somerset Primary Care Trust was unable to trace the source of the drugs, or identify the patients Mr Coomber visited on the day of his death.

Brenda Maddy, the trust's head of risk management, said: "Unfortunately the diary that I would have expected Martin to have has not been retrieved as yet."

The individual ampules in the car were not marked with a patient's name. Mrs Maddy explained that it would be usual for the label identifying a patient to be on the box containing a drug, rather than on individual doses.

While community nurses are involved in administering some drugs, their remit does not cover collecting them, delivering them or removing empty packaging and Mr Coomber would have known that he should not have had the articles in his car.

Mrs Maddy described him as: "A very generous, committed, conscientious individual and a good team player. He was very, very popular."

East Somerset coroner Tony Williams said he was concerned about arrangements for identifying and tracking the use of individual doses of drugs that might be administered to a patient in their home and would write to the trust and to the Department of Health to voice his concerns.

The inquest, sitting at Wells, heard that Mr Coomber suffered from severe chronic pain from an old elbow injury. The two drugs he had used are given together as sedatives or painkillers and could impair driving.

There was nothing to suggest that Mr Coomber was using or abusing drugs and Mr Williams said: "I think this may have been the one and only time that Mr Coomber took this medication, and he would have had no tolerance to it."

Pensioner Stanley Ginn, of Glastonbury, who was driving behind Mr Coomber between Wells and Glastonbury told the inquest that a few minutes before the accident he saw Mr Coomber's car drive on to a nearside embankment and later swerve to the offside narrowly missing two cars.

Mr Coomber's car eventually collided head on with a van driven by a Julie Andrews, of Glastonbury.

He died from internal chest injuries. Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Williams said the drugs had played at least a partial role.

Mr Coomber's widow, Tracey, and mother Jo, told the inquest that he also suffered from a condition which led him to sneeze in bright sunshine and in the past she had had to hold the steering wheel if he was driving when the problem arose. Police Constable David Horsley said that although it was a sunny day he did not believe the sun's brightness would have affected Mr Coomber's driving ability.

The Trust said it would give a comprehensive response to any questions submitted, but also emphasised that it has comprehensive policies and procedures on the handling and administration of medicines to patients and district nurses themselves have professional codes of conduct that they were required to adhere to.

It said: "Martin was a highly valued and respected member of staff whose tragic loss is still deeply felt by his colleagues and the many friends he made within the local NHS and community over the years.

"Our thoughts are with his wife and relatives at this time."