THE FINAL seconds before a man exited a moving car on the M4 where he was killed by an oncoming vehicle will remain unknown, a coroner has said.

Mark Pilgrim's body was lying prone on the eastbound carriageway when a woman - who mistook him for a bag until the last moment - unwittingly crashed into the 48-year-old, killing him.

Police investigators say Sophie Fenwick-Paul had been in an "impossible situation" and could not be blamed for the way the Tilehurst man died.

A statement read on her behalf at an inquest into Mark's death revealed the father of two had still been alive when he was hit by the blue Volkswagen Touareg, between junctions 10 and 8/9.

It read: "It was only in the last split second that I realised it was a person. I did not have time to avoid the object."

She added how in the final moment she saw his left shoulder lift up towards her and said: "This is really what has been haunting me ever since."

Mark was known to use heroin and crack cocaine and was said to have been meeting the driver of the Audi TT he fell from to settle a £180 cannabis debt.

CCTV footage showed him voluntarily getting into the car at the junction of Oxford Road and Norcot Road at 9.41pm on October 24, 2014.

Friend Shakil Ahmed said in a statement that earlier the same day he received a series of phone calls from Mark who sounded "under pressure" and "like he wanted to say something but could not" on the final exchange when he could be heard to be in a car.

Virgil Banahene-Bonsu, the driver of the Audi TT, appeared at Reading Town Hall today to give evidence in person.

He told the coroner how Mark said he would give directions to where they could pick up the money owed and that was how the pair ended up on the motorway.

Mr Banahene-Bonsu said: "He let himself out of the car. I did not force him or do anything to make him believe it was better for him to do such a thing.

"I would like to think we had a fruitful relationship."

Mr Banahene-Bonsu described how Mark leant over to open the door with his right hand and fell out facing backwards, with his right shoulder exiting the door first.

The Audi was driving at around 50mph at the time and forensic investigators later confirmed markings on the road suggested he "tumbled" as he left the car in the middle lane.

Further examinations revealed he was later dragged across the carriageway after the Volkswagen in lane one ran into him.

Mark's family criticised Mr Banahene-Bonsu for not stopping to check on him but he told them "he was shook up and traumatised" and did not know what to do.

After returning home he contacted police days later from his home in Tottenham through his solicitor.

Berkshire Coroner Peter Bedford said: "What is inexplicable to the family, and I share their concern, is why it is that Mr Pilgrim should exit the car travelling at 50mph in the dark on a three lane carriageway with obvious knowledge that there are other vehicles moving at a similar speed."

He added that Mr Banahene-Bonsu's evidence pointed towards Mark, of Dulman Close, Tilehurst, deliberately leaving the vehicle but that nothing else could corroborate his statement.

Mr Bedford said: "I have no choice but to record an open verdict because I just do not know and the evidence does not allow me to say what happened."