A MISPLACED phone charger may have played a part in a fatal car crash that killed the director of Fenland Music Centre and an American serviceman, an inquest heard this week.

Mother-of-two Kathy Faelber, 56, had been on her way to watch her students perform a concert at St Peter’s Church, in March, when the crash happened on the A1101 near Littleport on April 2.

American serviceman Bradly Ring was travelling to RAF Mildenhall when he realised he had forgotten to take his charger, forcing him to rush back to his house in Main Street, Littleport, to retrieve it.

The minutes lost fetching the charger put the staff sergeant behind schedule and with a flight to Greece to catch, he may have been driving faster than normal when he was involved in the accident that claimed the pair’s lives.

Alan Fisher, of West Row, who was travelling towards Littleport at the time of the accident, told the inquest he was “struck by the high speed” of Mr Ring’s Honda.

Mr Fisher said that after hitting a bump in the road, the 26-year-old suddenly lost control of his car and swerved towards the grass verge.

Beck Row resident Richard Rice, who also witnessed the collision, said that Mr Ring was “fighting to try and correct the car” when he passed him.

Mr Rice saw him shoot to the right before noticing “an explosion of car parts” in his mirror as he collided with Mrs Faelber’s Mazda, which was at the back of a line of cars.

Collision investigator Pc Francis Crawford, said that Mr Ring’s loss of control had caused an almost 90 degree “T-bone” collision.

Mrs Faelber died of severe head injuries as a result of the smash while Mr Ring’s cause of death was given as multiple traumatic injuries.

Coroner for North and East Cambridgeshire, William Morris, recorded a verdict of accidental death for both Mrs Faelber and Mr Ring.

Mrs Faelber, a violinist with the Cambridge Sinfonia Orchestra, had taught hundreds of young musicians across the county and had run several youth orchestras.

Students from the Fenland Music Centre united at Neale-Wade Community College last month to hold an emotional concert in memory of their former tutor.