A CORONER has demanded that a Hampshire road be made safer after he heard horrific details of how a teenager was killed.

Chris Garner, 13, suffered serious head injuries when he was hit by a car as he cycled home from watching his brother play football.

Experts said the talented footballer either fell off his bike and was hit, or purposely threw himself off it when he spotted the car bearing down on him.

His tragic death touched people across the county, and more than 300 youngsters turned out earlier this month to play in a special football tournament in his memory.

The Chris Garner Challenge Cup, set to become an annual fixture, attracted a staggering 39 teams and raised more than £500 for Southampton General Hospital's children's trauma unit.

The inquest, at Southampton Coroner's Court yesterday, heard that Chris had just watched his little brother Steve score a hat-trick in a school football match and was cycling home when the tragedy happened.

He had been pedalling up the hill, behind his friend Alex Hibberd, when he swung out to cross the road.

Janet Hughes, 52, was driving her Renault Laguna down Woodmill Lane, Bitterne, when the teenager suddenly appeared in front of her.

"I didn't have any opportunity to react apart from to hit the brakes as hard as I could," she said. "It was all over in a split second. I couldn't avoid him."

Passers-by rushed to help Chris, who was a pupil at Bitterne Park School, but he died less than an hour after the crash on October 2 last year.

His death is the latest in a gruesome accident toll along the 30mph-limit stretch.

Eyewitness and friend Alex Hibberd, 13, said in a statement read out in court: "I know there have been a lot of accidents exactly where Chris was, but they haven't got as severe injuries. We saw a boy in year 11 knocked down walking across the road, and he survived."

Now Chris's family has joined coroner Keith Wiseman in calling for vital safety measures to be installed in the road, used by scores of youngsters every day.

Chris's father Dave Garner, of Cornwall Crescent, Bitterne, told the inquest: "We have been meeting with Bitterne Park School with regards to road safety. Where I live, a lady lost her son in the same spot some years ago. I believe another person also died in virtually the same spot.

"My youngest son has to walk with his friends past

that spot every day and hundreds of children use the road."

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Wiseman said: "I do have power to write to the relevant authorities in relation to the evidence we have heard.

"I was struck on my own visit to the area how dangerous it is. I will take whatever steps are possible following this tragedy to try to ensure the matter is at least looked at officially."

Southampton City Council, responsible for the road, refused to comment.