A WEDDING guest killed on a motorway was intoxicated, disoriented and possibly trying to find his way back home to Bolton, an inquest has heard.

Peter Ridyard, aged 33, died on the M66 near Bury when he was hit by a white Audi A5 while he was walking along the northbound carriageway in the early hours of the morning on August 13 last year.

He and his partner Carmel Mitchell were guests at a wedding at The Village Hotel in Bury the day before.

Miss Mitchell said at the inquest in Rochdale that Mr Ridyard, a doorman, had been drinking ‘throughout the day’.

She believes he was trying to walk back home after the couple had an argument in their hotel room and she decided to sleep in the car after moving it to the back of the car park.

She said: “My thoughts are that he was trying to come after me. We had a discussion, I left and he came after me but he did not know the area.

“I do think he was disorientated and he has history of walking home like this so I think that would be what he was trying to do.”

After the argument, Mr Ridyard had gathered his belongings into a pillow case and was spotted on CCTV leaving the hotel at around 1am.

Police said there were drivers who had seen him walking along the carriageway.

But Mehren Choudry, who was driving the Audi with his friends after a meal out in Manchester, hit Mr Ridyard from behind in what police described as an ‘unavoidable’ collision.

The impact threw Mr Ridyard across the central reservation and into the southbound carriageway before he was run over by three other vehicles.

Mr Choudry, a student from Blackburn, stopped at the scene and the emergency services were called. A paramedic pronounced Mr Ridyard dead at 2.30am.

Miss Mitchell said he had walked back home from a night out in Manchester once before.

And she dismissed the possibility that he took his own life.

She said: “I do think it was an accident, there are other ways he could have taken his own life on other nights.

“It was his best friend’s wedding and he had so much to live for.”

Mr Choudry, aged 20, had not been drinking but admitted to taking cannabis.

He said: “It was raining and quite foggy and there were no motorway lights, just car headlights.

“The speed had been cut down to 50 and I was doing between 50 and 55mph.

“My friends were having a conversation in the back but I was not paying any attention to them.

“I just heard a massive slam on the car and I just saw a white t-shirt.

“My window was down and I could smell alcohol and I thought that he must have had alcohol because I had not been drinking.

“It was too dark to see anything.”

Mr Choudry was banned from driving for 15 months at Blackburn Magistrates Court in March after pleading guilty to driving with excess cannabis and without insurance.

He was also fined £140 with £85 costs and £30 victim surcharge. His licence was endorsed with six penalty points.

But at the inquest PC Gary Brian, a reconstruction officer, said the collision was ‘unavoidable’ as Mr Choudry would not have expected to see a pedestrian.

He also alluded to the lack of lighting on that section of the motorway and the damp conditions.

PC Brian said: “The last thing he would have expected was a pedestrian.

“We would normally give driver one or two seconds stopping time but given the conditions I think that around four seconds is realistic.

“In my opinion, the collision was unavoidable.”

A post-mortem examination of Mr Ridyard confirmed he had died as a result of multiple injuries.

Coroner Lisa Hashmi recorded the conclusion that Mr Ridyard had died as a result of misadventure.

She said: “All this suggests to me he was intoxicated and he was not in an area he was familiar with.

“I think he was either making his way home or looking for Miss Mitchell

“He made his way onto the M66 and he was intoxicated, he found himself in unfamiliar surroundings in a very dark situation as the lights on the motorway weren’t on so he would have been very disorientated.”