A STUDENT was struck by a lorry as she walked home on a country road in the dark.

An inquest heard how Marie Louise Wilson, 23, was seen walking along an unlit main road with her back to oncoming traffic and wearing dark clothes.

The hearing, in Easingwold, North Yorkshire, heard how Ms Wilson, of Gibb Street, Bishop Auckland, was walking towards Darlington on November 30 last year with a friend, Robert Caine, after a Christmas shopping trip in Northallerton, where she had lost her purse.

While Mr Caine was walking on the grass verge, his friend walked in the roadside, despite his warnings.

In a statement, Mr Caine said he had met her after they both went for treatment for drug misuse.

Neither had money for bus fares, so at about 4pm they decided to walk to Darlington along the A167, an unlit road.

He said: "I told her to get on the grass verge, but she said she would be all right. I heard a wagon coming from behind and the next thing I heard a bang and Louise had gone."

The lorry driver, Jeffrey Kenyon, stopped and rang the emergency services. Ms Wilson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Kenyon had dropped off a load at Northallerton's Somerfield store and was heading back to Durham.

He told the hearing that, out of the darkness and only a few feet away, he suddenly saw two figures, one on the grass verge and one walking in the road.

"I had no chance to brake, I only saw the figures for two or three seconds and I hit one," he said.

PC David Taylor said there was no evidence to suggest that there was anything wrong with the lorry or Mr Kenyon's driving.

A post-mortem report said Ms Wilson's death was due to multiple head and abdominal injuries. An alcohol and drugs test had showed no evidence of alcohol, although traces of heroin and cocaine were detected.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, North Yorkshire East Coroner Michael Oakley said Mr Kenyon had little chance to see the pair before he was on top of them