A TEENAGE motorist died at the wheel of a car involved a two-vehicle collision not far from his home village.

Police today named the driver as 19-year-old Michael Alan Stones, of Thornley, in east Durham.

He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on a stretch of the A181, at its junction with the unclassified road leading to Old Cassop, between Thornley and Durham.

A Durham Police spokesman said Mr Stones was travelling west, towards Durham, in a Rover 25 when the vehicle crossed into the opposite carriageway, colliding with an oncoming VW Passat, travelling east on the A181.

The driver of the Passat, a 46-year-old local man, was said to have suffered, "non-serious injuries".

Any witnesses to the accident, which took place shortly after 8.30pm last night, is asked to contact Durham Police's accident investigation unit, on 0845-60 60 365.

* The accident took place only hours after the mother of another Thornley teenager killed in a car crash on the A181 backed a Durham Police road safety initiative.

Tracey Barnett, 16, was a passenger in a Peugeot 306 which lost control and struck a wall at Sherburn Hospital, at Sherburn House, between Thornley and Durham, on the evening of June 23 last year.

She was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown to her death.

The driver, a 17-year-old friend of Tracey, also from Thornley, had only recently passed his driving test at the time.

He was sentenced to three years in a young offenders' institution and banned from driving for five years after admitting causing death by dangerous driving recently at Durham Crown Court.

Several hours before the latest tragedy on the A181 Tracey's mother, Barbara, 38, visited Durham Police's annual Wise Drive - Drive for Life event, at force headquarters yesterday.

The initiative is aimed at warning 15 and 16-year-olds, approaching the age at which they can begin to legally learn to drive, of the potential dangers faced on passing their driving test and taking to the road.

Mrs Barnett said she readily agreed to back the week-long event, adding: "I think it's a really good thing to get the children here and show them what could happen.

"I would tell them to realise a car is not a toy.

"It's a dangerous thing and can kill people."

During the sessions youngsters are told of the devastation a car crash can have on victims and their families.

Almost 7,000 teenagers have attended Wise Drive events, staged by the force's accident unit, in recent years.