A CORONER has called for a safety barrier to be placed on Marbury Road in Anderton - after a man drowned when his car ended in the canal.

Antony Campbell, 41, of Southport, died on July 18 when he lost control of his purple BMW on a bend and ended upside down in the Trent and Mersey canal.

His live-in partner Jill Farrington managed to escape, a Crewe inquest heard on Monday.

Mr Campbell was almost three times over the legal limit, was not wearing a seatbelt and was disqualified from driving, the coroner was told.

Mystery had surrounded the identity of the driver after Miss Farrington told a doctor that she was driving the car.

The couple had been drinking at a nightclub and a Manchester hotel, where they had a room, but had left after complaints about their drunken behaviour in the early hours of the morning.

They had driven through a speed camera in Sale, where an enlarged photograph had shown it was Mr Campbell who was driving. The accident happened at 5.30am.

Kevin Carlos, of Marbury Drive, Comberbach, told the inquest: "I was on my way to work when I was flagged down by a man, who said a car was in the water.

"The car was upside down and I saw a girl. She had come out of the car and she was still in the water.

"She was screaming: 'Get him out, get him out'."

"I dived in and got to the driver's side. I went to the passenger's side. I then pulled the seat forward.

"I grabbed hold of something and kept hold of it and pulled him out."

Chesire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg praised his action and Mr Campbell's parents thanked him.

However Mr Rheinberg expressed concern about the lack of a proper safety barrier and said he would write to the highway authority asking them to send an expert to assess the situation.

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.

vkandel@guardiangrp.co.uk