A MOTORIST may have been killed as he swerved to avoid a pedestrian crossing a dual carriageway to get to a pub.

Dale Skidmore's car careered out of control through a gap in the central reservation and into traffic on the opposite carriageway.

Witness Lucy Fenwick said she had seen a man "dodging traffic on the other side of the road" from the Cross Keys pub, near Guisborough, east Cleveland.

She told an inquest she thought the man had started to cross the two westbound lanes of the A171 before 23-year-old Mr Skidmore's car veered across the central reservation into a car driven travelling in the outside lane of the opposite carriageway.

Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield ruled that Mr Skidmore of Fenton Street, Boosbeck, east Cleveland, died as the result of an accident.