A FRONT-SEAT passenger died when the driver of a car in which he was travelling lost control at a bend on a moorland road, an inquest was told.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded by the North Yorkshire East coroner, Michael Oakley, on Paul Christopher Hughes, 17, an apprentice of Gladstone Street, Eston, who died when the car was in collision with another vehicle at Lealholm junction on the Guisborough to Whitby road, the inquest at Pickering was told.

The driver, Anthony Lodge, of High Street, Eston, said he had been returning from Whitby in his Ford Fiesta with two friends on February 10, after having passed his test on New Year's Eve.

All he could remember about the accident was the "steering going light" just beforehand.

He told the inquest he suffered extensive injuries as a result of the accident.

Taxi driver Victor Nolan, of Woodlands Road, Darlington, said he had been heading towards Whitby when he witnessed the accident.

"The car was coming too fast and he hit the brakes and the wheels locked and the car came across the road. I knew he had lost it."

Mr Nolan had been following a Vauxhall Frontera driven by Penelope Fletcher, of Belgrave Crescent, Scarborough, who told the inquest that she had seen Mr Lodge's car swerving across the road but could remember nothing else because the car had crashed into her vehicle.

"I was just amazed that I was all right," she said.

Kayleigh Cobbald, of South Street, Eston, who had been a back-seat passenger in Mr Lodge's car, told the inquest she had seen a grey car pull out of Lealholm junction as their car approached it.

"Tony steered towards the right to avoid it," she said.

Traffic constable Paul Davenport said he had carried out a road test and estimated the speed of the Fiesta to have been between 65mph and 74mph at the time of the accident. The constable said he had rounded the bend in a similar car and 65mph was the safest speed he could handle.