A teenager who had been smoking cannabis and drinking throughout the day was seen wandering in the middle of the road moments before he was struck by a car and killed last year, an inquest heard today.

Julian Randall, 19, from Reading, died from a number of “unsurvivable” injuries to his neck, head and spine in October, minutes after police received a call reporting the pedestrian in the carriageway of Valley Road.

The inquest heard drivers passing Julian flashed oncoming cars to try to warn them of the danger which lay ahead in the dark, unlit road. But it was too late.

Although concluding his death was the result of a road traffic collision, Coroner Richard Hulett did say his reason for being in the road will be “a mystery that we are going to be left with”.

Mr Randall had earlier travelled from his hometown to a house in Hughenden Road, where he planned to stay for the evening.

During the course of the day the group of friends drank alcohol and Mr Randall smoked a cannabis joint, and it is believed later on as they prepared to go out, he walked out of the house leaving the door open and walked up the road.

When asked why he would leave without saying anything, his friend, Sean Holder, said: “It was just something Julian would do, quite often he would just go out to walk and think.”

Following the crash at about 6.40pm on October 27, other motorists rushed to try and help Mr Randall, but pathologist Dr Steven Corrigan said it was not likely he could have survived the injuries.

Collision investigators believed Mr Randall had his back to the car when he was hit and after crashing into the windscreen he was projected forward and then run over by the 4x4 vehicle.

His family and friends in the court heard how one witness attempted to keep him alive and put him in the recovery position.

Reliving the sequence of events on the evening of the accident, Megan Powell, who was travelling on the opposite side of the road, said  he looked like a rag doll as he was hit by the car.

She added: “I don’t think the driver of the car that hit the man did anything wrong. I don’t think there was anything he could have done.”

After she had spoken, the teenager’s father thanked her for trying to help.

Stephen Bolton, the driver of the Vauxhall Mokka which hit Mr Randall, had been staying in the De Vere Uplands Hotel, in Cryers Hill, while on business in London and was on his way back to the hotel.

He said: “I think I did see him in front of my car but not even for a second, it was almost immediate.”