Lee Wilson from Hazlemere 'was hit by two cars as he walked in the middle of the A404 at night'

Chef James Cross had been driving back from The Squirrel pub in Penn Street with his girlfriend and friends late on September 7 last year when he saw two cars pulled up on the A404 close to the junction with Gravelly Way near Hazlemere.

A taxi was in the Wycombe-bound lane with its hazard lights on, while nearby the other, a white Mercedes, was facing the direction of High Wycombe but was in the Amersham-bound lane with its reverse light on.

Unsure what was going on and with no sign of any people outside of the vehicles, Mr Cross, driving a Mitsubishi L200, slowed down on the 50mph stretch of road and tried to continue past, but ran over what he described as a “big dark shape”.

It was actually 32-year-old Lee Wilson, from Curzon Avenue in Hazlemere, who had just been hit by the Mercedes that had pulled over.

Lee, known as Badger to his friends and family, had been walking down the unlit and rural section of the A404 Amersham Road wearing dark clothing just before midnight on September 7, an inquest into his death at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court heard on Wednesday.

There were no pavements on that section of the 50mph road, just grass verges, but eye-witnesses reported seeing Lee walking around a metre and a half away from the verge in the road.

He had been at a friend’s house that evening and then decided to walk home to Hazlemere, turning down the offer of a lift.

Before he was hit by the Mercedes, driver Shirley Clarke reported seeing Lee “staggering” in the road, and managed to narrowly avoid hitting him by swerving out of the way.

As she was driving along the road towards High Wycombe at some point after 11.30pm, three cars heading in the opposite direction flashed their headlights at her.

Unsure why they were flashing her, she decided to slow down – and then spotted a “dark figure” in the road.

Ms Clarke and her friend said they were “scared” and didn’t know what to do, but decided against stopping.

She called police days later when she heard there had been a fatal accident there.

At around 11.52pm, Namal Mohottige was driving his work colleague Simon Green back to High Wycombe from a wedding reception in Newport Pagnell in his white Mercedes along the A404 and was doing around 45mph when he suddenly saw a person in the road.

Mr Mohottige told the inquest: “He had his back to me, wearing dark clothing about 1.5 metres from the verge, near enough in the middle. I couldn’t avoid him. I hit him – I didn’t even have time to brake. I swerved and came to a stop on the other side of the road.”

The impact smashed the windscreen on the passenger side, showering Mr Green in glass.

Mr Mohottige added: “[Simon] called 999. I just sat there in shock.”

Mr Green said his colleague wouldn’t have had “any chance” of avoiding Lee.

Taxi driver Mohammed Yasin was then driving down the A404 back towards High Wycombe at around 11.55pm when he noticed Mr Mohottige’s car on the wrong side of the road and slowed down.

In a statement, he said: “Suddenly laying in the road was a person. I swerved suddenly to the right and managed to avoid the person and pulled up.”

It was after Mr Yasin had pulled over that Mr Cross happened upon the scene and inadvertently ran over Lee, who was alive but seriously injured in the road.

Mr Cross cried as he read out his statement at the inquest, describing how other vehicles stopped at the scene and after calling an ambulance, the call handler asked them to start CPR.

Becoming emotional, he said: “He was in a really bad way. I said I didn’t think I could move him.”

Sadly Lee was pronounced dead at the scene despite the best efforts of the emergency services at around 12.30am.

Both Mr Cross and Mr Mohottige were breathalysed at the scene but neither were over the limit.

PC Adrian White, Thames Valley Police collision investigator, told the inquest it would have been very difficult for any driver to see Lee walking in the road and take evasive action quick enough.

Although Mr Mohottige’s Mercedes had an automatic braking system, the system only works if the vehicle is going less than 37mph and can detect pedestrians who are crossing the road, but the system would likely have failed to pick up Lee’s movements because he was walking with his back to the traffic.

He added: “Any one of us doing 50mph on that road in that set of circumstances could had that crash.”

Toxicology reports carried out after Lee’s death found the presence of cocaine and alcohol in his blood, but there was not enough alcohol to put him over the drink-drive limit.

His cause of death was multiple severe injuries.

Senior coroner Crispin Butler said Lee’s death was an “utterly tragic accident”.

He said: “It is a terrible tragedy for all involved, Lee because he lost his life but for the other drivers who were involved as well.

“There is very clear evidence he was struck walking with his back to traffic in dark clothing at night. He was then run over by a following vehicle when he was laying prone in the road.

“This is something that occurred accidentally – I don’t attribute blame to anyone.”