A MAN died after he stepped into the path of a car on the A31 on a road unsafe for pedestrians, an inquest heard yesterday.

Richard Jackson, known as Jacko to his friends, was walking back to his Penn Hill bedsit after drinking all afternoon in a Ringwood pub.

The 25-year-old, who suffered from depression and insomnia, had barely slept the night before January’s 8.30pm accident and was three and a half times over the drink drive limit Three different drivers reported narrowly missing the former land surveyor, before he stepped into the path of a Toyota driven by retired vicar Michael Stear.

Mr Stear and his wife were travelling back to their Weymouth home from a family funeral in Kent.

Before offering his deepest condolences to Mr Jackson’s family, the retired clergyman recalled: “I just remember the windscreen exploding and then experiencing excruciating, searing pain in my head.

“It felt as though my head had been cut with a Stanley knife.”

Other witnesses reported Mr Jackson staggering, but in the seconds before the fateful collision, Mr Stear said he “stepped forward firmly and deliberately”.

The accident happened on the A31 at Ashley Heath, in between two dimly-lit bridges at the intersection with the A338.

Dorset Police crash investigator PC Chris Beard said: “This was clearly a route not viable for pedestrians.”

The investigation found Mr Stear was driving a roadworthy vehicle within the speed limit.

After the collision, he managed to pull over and call 999.

By that time other motorists had stopped to aid Mr Jackson.

Mr Stear told the Bournemouth inquest he avoids night driving and still has not driven the same stretch of road.

Hours before the accident, Mr Jackson was with a friend, Amy Crutcher.

Following a disagreement at a pub, she went to another friend’s house in Ringwood and Mr Jackson made his way home.

She said: “The following day I found out it had happened. I felt so shocked, I couldn’t stop crying.”

Coroner Sheriff Payne recorded a verdict of accidental death.