Man died after wandering onto dual carriageway at night in North Yorkshire

Joseph Beaumont, 23, was hit by a taxi on the A64 westbound, near the village of Copmanthorpe in North Yorkshire, shortly before 1am on Sunday, February 28 last year.

It happened shortly after another driver swerved to avoid the warehouse worker, who was known as Joe, on a slip road of the dual carriageway.

An inquest, held in Northallerton yesterday, heard he had been staying with friends at a farm by Askham Bryan College the day before his death. But he walked off at around 10pm, after he had been drinking and taking cocaine.

Georgia Hampshire and her brother spent several hours looking for him in nearby fields. She made six video calls, five phone calls and sent 42 messages, before her phone died. The last message was delivered at 12.23am.

She told the inquest that Mr Beaumont “sounded happy” and kept saying he “would only be two minutes”, when she spoke to him on a video call. She could see that he was in a field, but he would not share his location.

North Yorkshire Police officers were called to the A64 at around 12.50am, after Mr Beaumont was hit by the taxi and was then run over by a van minutes later.

An investigation found that both drivers were travelling below the 70mph speed limit on a dark stretch of road and would not have been able to stop in time. Neither of them were under the influence of drink or drugs and they were not using their phones while driving.

During an interview, the taxi driver told police “it went dark” when he drove under a bridge on the dual carriageway and when he emerged, his car collided with someone and his windscreen smashed.

A post-mortem examination found Mr Beaumont had suffered a number of severe injuries and his death was caused by a blunt head trauma, which would have knocked him unconscious instantly.

Dr Matthew Christopher told the inquest that toxicological analysis revealed Mr Beaumont had enough alcohol in his system to put him two-and-a-half times over the legal drink drive limit. Ketamine, cocaine, cannabis and a low concentration of methadone were also detected.

Catherine Cundy, Area Coroner for North Yorkshire, said that combination of drugs “would have impaired Joe's perception, his vision, his coordination and spatial awareness, and indeed his judgement”.

“I accept that there is no direct evidence (to explain) exactly how and why Joe ended up on the carriageway. The closest we can come is that he may have entered via the slip road or possibly a footpath running along the A64,” she said.

“I am satisfied, from the evidence, that Joe had effectively walked, or wandered if that's a more appropriate word, from where he was staying in Askham Bryan while under the influence of alcohol and drugs and somehow made his way to the point of impact, nearly three hours after the last reported sighting.”

She added: “I accept that the driver of the Volkswagen taxi was travelling at normal road speed, quite possibly well below the limit for the road, was not impaired in any way and was not distracted by anything, and that he was not able to prevent that collision with Joe.”

The coroner also said there is no evidence to suggest that Mr Beaumont, who was described as “a popular and much loved brother and friend”, walked into the road to intentionally end his own life.

She recorded a verdict of death by road traffic collision.