Heartbroken family pay tribute to man hit by car on Sheffield Parkway

Andrew Broughton, aged 36, died after being hit by a car on the six-lane dual carriageway near its junction with Prince of Wales Road.

At today's inquest into the death of the father-of-two, the court heard from three drivers who were on the Parkway just after 10pm, on February 20 this year.

Lee Tollerfield said he was driving away from the city after attending Sheffield United's home game with Barnsley when '˜all of a sudden' he saw someone running across the road.

He said within a split second the man had hit his black Mercedes A class.

Two other drivers who were also on the road saw a man '˜sprinting' down the grass banking at the side of the Parkway before running across the road.

Matthew Bray said Mr Broughton had almost collided with another car on the road before he hit Mr Tollerfield's vehicle, which was written-off in the collision.

'I was completely gobsmacked, it was awful,' he said.

Forensic collision investigator, Mark Senior, said he had calculated that Mr Tollerfield, who suffered an injured hand, would have had about a second to react.

This would have been further reduced by Mr Broughton's dark or neutral clothing and the unexpected nature of seeing pedestrians on such a fast road.

'The driver would have had little or no chance to see him and formulate a plan of action before hitting him,' said Mr Senior.

'The road has high fences to either side to prevent people getting onto it and it is my opinion that the cause of this collision lies with Mr Broughton.'

A post-mortem examination concluded that Andrew had died of '˜multiple injuries' but also found very high levels of amphetamine in his system, which the coroner said could help explain some of his actions.

Ms Rawden also reassured his family, who attended the inquest, that he would not have suffered and that his death would have occurred '˜extremely quickly'.

They spoke movingly at the inquest of his devotion to his two children.

'He was not a bad lad - he was a good lad who just lost his way,' said his sister Emma Broughton.

'His children were his world, he would do anything for them,' added auntie Sharon Kelly.

She revealed that  Mr Broughton, a keen fisherman, had been raised by his grandmother and the thought they had now been reunited brought his family some comfort.

'We don't blame anybody for this,' she added.

'The driver, bless him, he was so young. I really felt for him.

'We just wanted to know what happened and get a bit of closure for us all.'