AN elderly Southampton hitchhiker was crushed to death by a lorry after walking across a busy roundabout near Winchester.

James Grandy, 77, who called himself Count Lysander de Grandy, was hitching to London because the trains were too expensive, the inquest heard.

An inquest in Winchester heard that Mr Grandy, described by neighbours as a pleasant eccentric, left home in Richmond Road, Freemantle, Southampton, at 7am on December 12.

In a statement, Francis Kiss, a lorry driver, said he dropped him off at junction nine of the M3 at Winnall.

He offered to dropMr Grandy at a lay-by, but as they met traffic on leaving the motorway, Mr Grandy asked to leave.

Moments later, at around 9.05am, Robert Morrall, a van driver from Bournemouth, was queuing on the slipway.

He said an elderly man left the verge and started walking across three lanes of traffic, heading towards a stationary 44-tonne lorry in the middle lane.

Mr Morrall said: “The impression I got is that with the way he was looking up at the lorry, he was trying to attract the driver’s attention.”

He added that man walked in front of the lorry, at which point the traffic lights turned green and it moved forwards.

The driver, Alan Vesty, from Stockport, said he had the radio on and the windows up, and would not have heard anyone outside.

Given the cab’s height, he would not have seen anyone walking directly in front of it, the inquest heard.

Mr Vesty said he stopped after feeling “a little bump” beneath his wheels. He parked beside the roundabout, got out, and saw a body in the middle lane.

He said this was the first time he had seen Mr Grandy, and could remember little else, apart from being comforted by motorists at the roadside.

Central Hampshire coroner Grahame Short absolved him of any blame.

He said: “Mr Grandy should not have been crossing the road at this point.

“It was very dangerous to do so, and was also contrary to the motorway regulations.”

The coroner added that, given Mr Grandy’s multiple injuries, death would have been instantaneous, and he recorded a verdict of accidental death.