A YOUNG boy was thrown "like a rag doll" after stepping out into the path of a car as he made his way to school to collect his sister.

Thomas Drew died from shock and haemorrhaging from multiple injuries, including a blow to the head, an inquest heard yesterday.

The four-year-old was with his mother, Sarah Byrne, and younger sister Laura on their way to collect his older sister Amy from Hindlip CE First School in Fernhill Heath.

They had set off on the school run earlier than normal to collect Thomas's toy gun from the nearby Chatterbox Nursery, where he attended pre-school.

The inquest at Stourport-upon-Severn heard Sarah Byrne's statement in which she described how she had lost Thomas's hand for a split second while standing in the pedestrian refuge on the Droitwich Road.

"I did not realise he had stepped into the road," she said.

"I had not heard anything. I turned round - he seemed to be going into the air and fell to the ground."

Driver Douglas Wright, whose Volvo S40 estate hit the youngster, had been travelling under the 40 miles per hour speed limit on his way from Worcester to his Droitwich home.

In a statement he said he was almost level with the refuge, when he saw Thomas "toddle out into the road in front of him".

"I swerved away and braked and I hit the bollard quite forcibly but the boy was still hit by the car," he said.

Eyewitness David Morrison, from Droitwich, said Thomas appeared to run into the side of the car, where he hit the bonnet and was "thrown forward like a rag doll".

Worcestershire coroner Victor Round said, although speed had not been an issue in this accident, which happened in April this year, ideally all roads around schools should have a 30mph limit. He recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Speaking after the inquest, Ms Byrne, of Station Road, Fernhill Heath, said she was disappointed a lollipop lady was still not in place to prevent more tragedies like this.