A TEENAGER died after his car struck the kerb on the A39 near Perranarworthal and crossed over the road, rolling on to its side before hitting a tree, an inquest has heard today.

Danny Thomas, aged 18, died at the scene of the accident on December 18 2017, and his passenger Michael Berry, 19, died of his injuries weeks later on January 3. Both men were from Bugle.

Police evidence showed that the vehicle would have been travelling at a minimum speed of 71 miles per hour when the speed limit is 60.

Mr Thomas, was not wearing his seatbelt at the time of the collision, although assistant coroner Andrew Cox noted that “if he had been wearing a seatbelt, that may not have helped him", as the car’s driver side collided with the tree.

Mr Cox concluded the hearing by saying: “Two young boys have lost their lives and I am desperately sad that that is the case.”

A witness who drove past the scene of the accident before stopping and reporting it to emergency services described in a statement how he “took a deep breath” before looking inside the car to see that the passenger was still breathing.

He described trying to reassure the two occupants of the vehicle that help was on the way, and mentioned feeling “quite helpless” as he and his friend were unable to get into the car, which was on its side.

An ambulance arrived, and the man was given gardening gloves so he could hold back the car’s window while paramedics recovered the two men from the Vauxhall Corsa.

By this time, at least two other members of the public had stopped by the side of the road and one of them began filming the incident on his phone.

On the day of the accident, Mr Thomas and Mr Berry had been driving around with a 16-year-old girl from Penryn, whom they had dropped off just prior to the accident.

In a written statement, she described how they had driven to Cornwall Services and eaten an ice cream from McDonald's, saying that they had all been in a good mood.

She sent a text message to Mr Thomas just after midnight, around 15 minutes after the accident, to which he never responded.

The girl also mentioned that Mr Thomas was popular, well respected and a successful boxer, and that she had always felt safe as a passenger in his car.

Assistant coroner Andrew Cox cited three main factors contributing to Mr Thomas’ losing control of the vehicle.

Firstly, evidence from police showed that he was most likely travelling above the speed limit at a minimum of 71 miles per hour, although Mr Cox said: “It seems inevitable that the speed is higher than that.”

Secondly, trace amounts of cannabis were found in Mr Thomas’ system, and although Mr Cox noted that it was impossible to tell how long ago he had smoked cannabis, it was likely to have affected his reaction speed after the wheel of his car first struck the kerb.

Thirdly, forensic examination of the vehicle revealed that one or more of the tyres were likely to have been under-inflated, affecting the car’s grip on the road.

In his verdict, he said that Mr Thomas and Mr Berry "died as a result of a road traffic collision".

Adrian Roberts, from Cormac, suggested that the stretch of road was not inherently dangerous, and although there was another nearby collision this year resulting in two deaths, the driver in that case was four times over the legal drink drive limit and it was an incident that was probably “going to happen anywhere”.

Even so, Mr Roberts stated that Cormac plans to revise the lining of the curve to better alert drivers and reduce the possibility of similar collisions in the future.