Wearing a hoodie may have led to the death of a Witney teenager killed when he ran in front of a car.

Thirteen-year-old Andrew Edwards died from a cracked skull on November 16 last year on the A415 at Ducklington, after he was hit by Fiat Punto which he apparently did not see.

Recording a verdict of accidental death today, Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: "He ran into, rather than in front of, the car which suggests very strongly that he never saw it. The fact he was wearing a hood may have been a contributor to that to some extent."

Shane Beer, a passenger in the car, said Andrew was wearing a dark hooded top with the hood up.

Police investigator Stephen Jenkins told Mr Gardiner: "The hood could have partially obscured his view and could also have muffled the sound of an approaching vehicle."

Andrew, a pupil at Henry Box School, in Witney, who lived in Henry Box Close, died at the scene.

Seventeen-year-old car driver David Clarke, from Headington, Oxford, said the traffic lights at the scene were green at the time.

Mr Clarke said: "I went past the traffic lights and saw something coming from a 45-degree angle behind me and hit the front of my car.

"I braked just as I saw him and I went to turn, but it was too late."

Mr Beer said: "He (Andrew) didn't seem to take any action to avoid us.

"The driver of the car I was in tried to swerve and as he slammed on the brakes, we hit him."

The inquest heard that Mr Clarke had been travelling at about 30mph and his vehicle had no defects.

But modifications to the sidelights, which flashed alternatively blue, green and red in a disco style, would have rendered it not roadworthy.

Andrew, an avid football fan, had been staying with a friend on the day of the accident and had gone to the nearby garage to buy sweets.

Mr Gardiner said "interaction" with his friends moments before he ran into the road caused him to run across the road without looking.

He said: "He was trying to cross a toucan crossing against the light and ran into the passing car. Tragedies of this sort have a very wide-reaching effect on many, many people."

Andrew was a member of the Witney Rifles Army Cadets, and hoped to join the forces when he left school. His funeral was attended by members of his cadet corps who marched through the town.