Did free bar contribute to my son's death?

9:00am Tuesday 15th July 2008

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THE father of a man run over and killed following a works party has criticised the company where he worked for providing a free bar.

Mystery remains why Matthew Dyson was lying face down on the A449 Worcester to Kidderminster road at Ombersley after the party.

At an inquest yesterday, deputy coroner for Worcestershire Margaret Barnard ruled his death was an accident.

Earlier she had heard that Mr Dyson – known as Dizzy – had died on Friday, March 7 from head injuries after a night out at China City restaurant with his firm Amada to celebrate the end of the financial year.

The firm had provided a free bar and it is thought 25-year-old Mr Dyson had drunk a few pints of lager and seven glasses of wine.

A toxicology report found Mr Dyson had 281mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal limit for driving is 80mg.

After the meal, Mr Dyson, of Leicester Street, Barbourne, Worcester, called his friend Alex Jander to ask for a lift.

He then left the restaurant and started walking towards Ombersley, crossing the A449 and the central reservation, and somehow ended up face down in the middle of the northbound carriageway near the junction with the A4133.

The inquest heard he was hit by two vehicles.

Shirley Smith was driving home to Stourport-on-Severn with her husband and daughter when her husband suddenly screamed: “Somebody is in the road.”

She slammed on her brakes but it was too late and her Mitsubishi went over Mr Dyson. Her husband George jumped out of the car to try and stop the traffic, but before he could, another car ahd driven over his body.

“I just froze. I could not believe that it was a person,” said Mrs Smith.

Speaking after the inquest, in Stourport, Mr Dyson’s father Nick said his son may have tripped because he was wearing a borrowed suit which was baggy and ill-fitting.

He said: “We will never know why Matthew fell, whether he tripped or skidded or what. He did have baggy clothes and he did not get a belt. Was it because of that that the trousers got caught and he fell? Was he trying to use his phone and trying to hold his clothes up?”

And he questioned the decision to provide a free bar to employees on a Thursday night, when they would have to drive to work the next day.

He said: “I am pretty sure if he was paying for his drink he would not have had the amount of alcohol, that is my bugbear. I think it was because it was free he got a bit carried away.”

Mrs Barnard recorded a verdict of accidental death.

After the inquest Amada refused to comment.