HOW a student came to be at the side of the road where he met his death will remain a mystery, an inquest heard yesterday.

Richard Hyde, 21, from Sheerness, Kent, who was studying chemistry at Newcastle University, stepped in front of an empty bus early one morning in March on the A993 at New Kyo, Stanley, County Durham, and died of multiple injuries.

North Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle said that Go Ahead Northern driver Raymond Appleby, of Leadgate, near Consett, could not be blamed for the accident.

And he said that why Mr Hyde, who lived with his girlfriend in the Jesmond area of Newcastle, came to be at the spot and did what he did would remain "in my mind a question mark''.

Mr Appleby, who wept while giving evidence, said he was on his way to Consett in daylight shortly after 6am to start his first run of the day, when Mr Hyde stepped from the verge into the path of his 44-seater single-decker.

He applied the brakes and tried to swerve but could not avoid hitting him.

"I couldn't get out of his way,'' he said.

Building worker Peter Hill, from North Wales, said: "There was no chance.

"He seemed to step off slowly and then speed up.''

PC Keith Butler, of the Durham force's accident investigation unit, said he had not been able to find out why the student was in Stanley, a place he apparently had no connection with.

PC Butler said Mr Hyde's girlfriend said he had been moody and depressed about what he thought were poor marks on his course - although he was expected to achieve good grades.

The night before his death he went to a friend's flat to study, but in the early hours he said he was going home. The friend thought he meant Kent.

PC Butler said that Mr Hyde withdrew cash at Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, and appeared to have slept in his silver Vauxhall Astra in a Stanley street, two miles from the accident spot.

Cannabis was found in the car and there were traces of the drug in his blood, although what effect it had could not be estimated.

Mr Tweddle recorded a verdict of accidental death, saying that details surrounding the tragedy would remain a mystery.