A CHRISTMAS shopping trip ended in tragedy when a father-of-five was struck by two cars and died from massive head injuries.

Gordon Phillips had been shopping at the Odiham Extravaganza on the evening of November 27 with his partner, Amanda Swift, when he decided to return to his parked car to drop off their purchases.

An inquest, held at Basingstoke magistrates court this morning, heard that as the 69-year-old crossed Dunleys Hill near Texaco petrol station at around 6.40pm, he was struck a glancing blow by the wing mirror of one car, and fell into the path of a 4x4 travelling in the opposite direction.

The impact of his fall, as his head struck the road, caused massive head injuries, from which he never recovered.

Andrew Bradley, coroner for North East Hampshire, heard evidence from Ms Swift, who described how she had told her partner not to go back to the car.

She said: “The bag of Christmas shopping wasn’t heavy. I said ‘there’s no need, I’ll carry it.’ “But he insisted.”

She told the inquest, held at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court today, that they had planned to have a takeaway after their shopping trip.

She said: “He had been gone fifteen minutes and I thought, ‘He’s just got chatting.’”

But as she heard about the accident and approached the scene, realisation slowly dawned.

She said: “I felt my legs buckling.

“I said (to a nearby woman) ‘I think it’s my partner’. I sat on the bench and I kept saying – ‘I need to be with him, I have to go to him’”.

The inquest heard evidence from several witnesses, who described the traffic on Dunleys Hill as very slow-moving, due to the volume of traffic for the Odiham Extravaganza, held in the nearby Odiham High Street.

Forensic collision investigation officer PC Andrew McDonald said he believed that Mr Phillips was in the middle of the road, dressed in dark clothes, when he was struck by the wing mirror of the Toyata Yaris.

He said he believed that Mr Phillips was lying in the road, and had already hit his head when a Nissan Navara then made contact. The post-mortem suggests that the Nissan went over his ankle.

Elizabeth Cooper, the driver of the Toyota, said that Mr Phillips had appeared “like a genie” in front of her car.

She said: “I didn’t see him, he just came out of nowhere. I stopped the car, got out, and he was lying behind in a big pool of blood.”

The driver of the Nissan, Darren Swan, also gave evidence, saying that he had heard a thud, and not realised his car had struck Mr Phillips until he got out of the vehicle.

He said “I was not aware of the vehicle going over him. But it is possible.”

PC McDonald told the inquest that neither vehicle was travelling in excess of the speed limit, and said that the Highway Code would advise Mr Phillips should have used a traffic island, located just 30 metres away from the scene of the accident.

Ms Swift told Mr Bradley she had previously warned her partner about crossing roads, saying: “I had had words. He would weave in between traffic.”

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Bradley described the incident as “tragic”.

He said: “Neither impact (from the cars) seems to have caused the fatal injury. It’s when he struck the ground that he suffers injuries incompatible with life.”

Mr Phillips, from Alton, leaves behind five sons, Gary, Roy, Dean, Joe and Sam.