Accidental death verdict (From Stroud News and Journal)

Accidental death verdict

POST Office driver Gary Morgan believed that he saw a 'bag of rubbish' lying in the middle of the road as he drove early one morning from Gloucester to Stroud.

But just feet before he hit the 'bag', he realised to his horror that it was a young man, an inquest heard on Thursday.

The Cotswold coroner Lester Maddrell was told that the man was 21 year old Henry Hawkes, who had spent 11 hours drinking in Stroud pubs after getting a £300 windfall from his bank.

Mr Morgan, 37, of Oxford Road, Kingsholm, Gloucester told the inquest at Tewkesbury that he was making his second run for the Royal Mail in his 7.5 tonne truck to Stroud Sorting Office on October 3 when he passed through Edge.

On the A4173 he went round a large bend. "My main beam picked up something in the middle of the road, he said. "It looked like a bag of rubbish.

"It was not until I was about ten feet away that I realised there was someone in the middle of the road.

"I hit the brakes as hard as I could but he was just laid down and when I got within two feet of him he lifted his head and the van hit him."

The dead man's father, Michael Hawkes, said his son of Sparrow Cottages, Horsepools Hill, Edge, had been drinking in pubs throughout Stroud.

The joint tenant of his cottage, Luke Addis, said that earlier Henry had told him he had discovered he had £40 more in his bank account than he thought and the bank owed him another £250.

He usually drank six or seven pints of Guinness or lager each night and would regularly walk the 30-35 minutes journey home.

Consultant pathologist Dr Jeremy Uff said death was due to multiple injuries caused by Mr Hawkes being crushed by the van.

He added that Mr Hawkes had a blood-alcohol content of 222 mgs of alcohol per 100 mls of blood - more than two and a half times the limit for a driver.

Traces of cannabis had also been found in the dead man's bloodstream, he said, but he could not say when Mr Hawkes had used the drug.

It is possible that this combination of alcohol and cannabis induced bizarre behaviour. Verdict: Accidental death.