A BRICKLAYER who had been drinking was run over twice after apparently lying down to sleep in the middle of an unlit road, an inquest has heard.

Kevin Jamison lay down on the unlit B1269 near Dunsdale, east Cleveland, with his shoes removed and left neatly nearby.

Police said they did not know how he came to be there and why.

Medical evidence at the inquest in Middlesbrough yesterday showed Mr Jamison had 24 injuries on his body.

He had consumed so much alcohol that had he been driving, he would have been more than three times the legal limit.

Barred from a Guisborough pub because of his drunken state, the 24-year-old had evidently decided to walk to his home in Essex Close, Redcar.

Motorist Sarah Bullock said in a written statement that she had to swerve to avoid hitting Mr Jamison as he made his way "swaying and staggering" along the side of the road.

Another driver, Linda Carter, said she saw a body lying in the road and telephoned Cleveland Police when she arrived home.

Council official Jonathan Ridley said he swerved on to the wrong side of the road to avoid the body.

Moments later, Mr Jamison was run over by a taxi and then a car.

Police said taxi driver Ifzal Hussain, of Oxford Road, Middlesbrough, and car driver Howard Lamb, of Newholme Court, Guisborough, had driven with care, but had been unable to avoid Mr Jamison.

Recording an open verdict, Assistant Deputy Teesside Coroner Anthony Eastwood, said: "What remains a mystery is why Mr Jamison was laid in the road. He also appears, at some stage, to have taken his shoes off."

He said Mr Jamison was heavily intoxicated at the time of his death.

Mr Jamison's father, Derek, said after the inquest: "He has had a drink, come along the road and has probably felt tired, sat on the side of the road and fallen asleep.

"We have to accept the open verdict. Everybody did all they could and it is just one of those things."

He said that his son, who had been working all day, may have taken off what were new shoes because they had started to hurt his feet.