Father hit by car died from head injury - coroner

A man who died after being hit by a car while walking from a night out in 2023 died from a fatal head injury, a coroner has concluded.

Tommy Hunter's body was found by his friends in a hedge in Burton Road, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, after he did not return home in December 2023.

In March 2025, Brandon Beesla admitted driving a vehicle, a Pontiac Firebird, which was in a condition likely to cause danger of injury in Burton Road on the night Hunter, 27, went missing.

Concluding the inquest on Tuesday, senior coroner Louise Pinder said Hunter, from Swadlincote in Derbyshire, died as a result of a road traffic collision.

The inquest, at Rutland and North Leicestershire Coroner's Court, heard Beesla had visited a pub earlier in the evening of 9 December 2023.

Det Sgt Jack Cornick, of Leicestershire Police, told the court Beesla had a picture on his phone of a beer bottle and records of "at least one" receipt for a round of drinks on his bank account.

In the early hours of the following day, Beesla made a call to a female "associate", who said he had sounded "distressed", the inquest heard.

Beesla had told her he was about to go for a drive, the inquest was told, but she advised him he was in "no fit state" to get behind the wheel of a car.

A short while later, Hunter was seen on CCTV leaving a club in Ashby on his own before walking towards Burton Road.

Cornick said Hunter was seen on CCTV to be "unsteady" on his feet and "meandering into the carriageway".

The officer said a car similar to Beesla's was picked up on CCTV footage from the Tap House Pub, near Ashby, driving towards the scene at 02:44 GMT.

He then made another call to the woman 12 minutes later in a distressed state, saying that he thought he had hit something, the inquest was told.

The woman drove down to the scene at 03:40, and helped Beesla look around before driving in convoy back to his house, despite suggesting he call the police.

She later called police on 11 December, having seen reports that Hunter had been found dead on social media.

The court heard officers arrested Beesla, and his phone was seized, with detectives finding he had deleted call records from 10 to 11 December.

It was not until 40 hours after the crash that Beesla was tested for drugs and alcohol, Cornick said.

When asked if he was sure who was behind the wheel of the car which hit Hunter, Cornick said: "I have no doubt in my mind that it was the vehicle that hit Mr Hunter, and I have no doubt it was Beesla that was driving."

The inquest heard a case for death by dangerous driving was prepared by Leicestershire Police for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), however it was decided the force had "insufficient evidence to have realistic prospect of conviction". The decision was upheld after an appeal by Hunter's family.

In her concluding remarks, Pinder said: "There is absolutely no evidence to say this was a deliberate act by either Mr Hunter or Mr Beesla."

Forensic pathologist Dr Michael Biggs told the court that he had been "unusually" been asked to visit the scene by detectives after Hunter was found by friends.

He said the civil engineer was "within some very dense bushes" by the side of the road when he was found.

When he was removed from the foliage, the pathologist told the court Hunter had suffered injuries to his left leg, which he said was likely to be the initial point of impact with the car.

A secondary injury to his head caused by the windscreen of the car would have been "essentially unsurvivable", Biggs added.

During the inquest, crash investigator Sgt Russell Davies told the court Hunter was found in a bush 20m (66ft) away from a scuff mark, which may have been caused by the collision.

Using an Australian study dating back to the 1990s, which analysed head impacts on car windscreens similar in size to the Pontiac, Davies estimated the car was travelling between 45mph (72km/h) and 50mph (80km/h) at the time of the collision. The road had a 50mph speed limit, the inquest heard.

Taking into account how soon the driver would have been able to recognise Hunter as a pedestrian, the lack of street lighting and his reaction time, Davies said the driver would not have been able to stop in time to prevent the collision.

He added there was no evidence that the driver took any evasive action before the collision.

Appearing at Leicester Magistrates' Court in 2025, Beesla, 29, was fined £2,000 and banned from driving for 12 months.

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