A MAN suffered fatal injuries after walking to a motorway bridge in his dressing gown and jumping off straight into oncoming traffic.

At an inquest in Preston, coroner Richard Taylor said Prem Amos Chadha had clearly been “in a distressed and depressed state”, after Facebook messages were found on his phone in which the 24-year-old had intimated he intended to kill himself.

The inquest heard that on December 15 at10.10pm, Mr Chadha had walked from his home in Tabor Street, Burnley, to the bridge on Cavalry Way which overlooks the M65 at junction 10.

Mr Taylor said: “Mr Chadha fell from the bridge on the M65, landing in lane two where he was struck by two vehicles.”

Collision investigator PC Barry Moore said Mr Chadha had been hit by a Mercedes, which was being driven by Naveed Younis, who had joined the motorway at junction 12 and was heading westbound towards Manchester.

Mr Younis had been overtaking an HGV when Mr Chadha fell from the bridge, and was struck by his car.

As Mr Younis pulled over onto the hard shoulder and called emergency services, a third vehicle was seen travelling in the same direction and seemed to make contact with Mr Chadha but this vehicle did not stop at the scene and has never been identified.

PC Moore stated Mr Younis had insufficient time to react, meaning the collision with Mr Chadha had been completely unavoidable.

Mr Taylor said: “A post mortem examination revealed Mr Chadha had 178mg of alcohol in his system, and on his phone, which was found at his home address, were messages which had been sent two to three days before his death, saying ‘what have I got to lose, I am going to end my life’.

“He had also said specifically for people not to contact the police and made comments offering an apology.

“There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation other than he wanted to end his own life as this was clearly a man who was in a distressed and depressed state.

“I return a conclusion of suicide, and say Prem died on the M65 motorway from injuries sustained after being struck by traffic having jumped from the motorway bridge.”

Anyone affected by this report can call the Samaritans free of charge on 116 123.