A TEENAGER, who died on New Year’s Day when he was hit by a taxi, had repeatedly stepped into oncoming traffic moments before the fatal collision, an inquest heard.

Kaliam Fearon, 19, of Copland Close, Brighton Hill, suffered a severe head injury when he went through the windscreen of the taxi in Winchester Road, by Down Grange, just after midnight on New Year’s Day.

He was taken to Southampton General Hospital where he later died.

His father, Stephen, described hearing the impact of the crash, and told the inquest: “I knew it was going to be fatal.”

Mr Fearon had been “distressed” that night after an argument with his girlfriend, and had been drinking, the inquest held yesterday at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court heard.

Bethan Cox, one of several motorists to see Mr Fearon minutes before his death, said he walked in front of her car as she drove eastbound on the A30 near the Toby Carvery pub entrance.

She said: “I was around 50metres from him when he deliberately walked in to my side of the road.

“He turned around and faced the car and then he started making finger gesture signs at the car. I beeped to get him out the way.

“I then noticed a van coming in the opposite direction.

When he saw this, he turned and walked deliberately into its path.”

The inquest heard the van managed to brake in time, but minutes later, Mr Fearon was hit by a Skoda Octavia private hire car driven by Farzan Niazi.

Mr Niazi, who was taking passengers from Hatch Warren to Sherfield-on-Loddon, broke down in tears when he recalled hitting Mr Fearon. He said he did not see him until it was too late.

He added: “When I saw him he was quite close, he was only two car lengths away. I slammed the brakes and swerved to the right. I thought that maybe I had missed him but unfortunately I got him.

“He came through my windscreen. I was in shock.”

When Mr Niazi started to cry, he was comforted by Mr Fearon’s father Stephen.

He told the inquest his son was “distressed” when he came to see him just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, and had asked for a cuddle, before lying on the grass outside the house and then walking away towards the nearby A30.

Mr Fearon added: “I was on the other side of the hedge and as soon as I heard the impact, I knew it was going to be fatal.”

PC Ed Wilson, a forensic crash investigator for Hampshire Constabulary, said the impact of the crash suggested that Mr Niazi was going at the 40mph speed limit at the time of the crash.

He said no faults were found with the taxi, and that by the time Mr Niazi saw Mr Fearon, the collision was “inevitable”.

Andrew Bradley, coroner for North East Hampshire, recorded an open verdict, adding that there was not enough evidence of “settled intent”

that Mr Fearon had tried to kill himself.

Addressing Mr Fearon’s family, he said: “The sequence of events is that he has positioned himself in the road to pose a threat to himself. I have no doubt about that.

“The impact is such that the injury he sustains is not survivable. The only comfort I can give you is that he would not have suffered.”

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