A FOUR-hour search for a hospital bed could have contributed to the death of a teenager who suffered a serious head injury following a car crash near Worcester, an inquest heard.

Questions have been asked about whether Ashley Attwood, aged 16, would have survived had a bed at a specialist hospital been found quicker following the crash, which also killed his friend, driver Timothy Evans, 17, of Hereford's Home Firth Close.

Stourport-on-Severn coroner's court heard how the green Ford Fiesta left the A4103 Hereford to Worcester Road at Bransford and crashed into a bridge at about 8.45pm on Wednesday, January 3, last year.

Mr Attwood was cut from the wreckage and rushed to Worcestershire Royal Hospital, arriving about an hour later.

At yesterday's inquest doctors said Mr Attwood, of Hereford's Hinton Road, was diagnosed as having a serious head injury and scans were sent to hospitals in Birmingham and Coventry which have specialist neosurgical units.

However, there were no beds available and a desperate search ensued, resulting in phone calls to hospitals as far as Oxford and Cardiff before a bed was found in Stoke at about 2.20am.

Dr Stephen Greystone, a consultant and associate medical director at Worcester, said the scans then had to be sent by taxi to the hospital because the electronic system there was unable to decode them.

"The only way that could have been shortened is by transferring the images electronically - that's a big chunk of time taken up," he said. "There is significant work to make that happen but we are not there yet."

Dr Greystone said Mr Attwood was monitored in intensive care at Worcester and was considered to be in a stable condition when he arrived in Stoke.

Crash survivors - Hereford teenagers Kerry Roberts and Rebecca Griffiths, who were aged 16 at the time of the incident - said the friends had spent the day in Worcester.

Miss Roberts said they had not been drinking alcohol and Timothy Evans did not use his mobile phone while driving.

She said he was not speeding but wrestled with the steering wheel as the car approached a sharp left bend near the Fox Inn at Bransford.

"He began to turn into the road and started to turn a bit more, but we weren't getting around and then his arms went right over and that's when we came off the road," she said.

"We went up on the kerb and we were getting thrown around. I don't remember waking up after that."

Coroner Geriant Williams said: "He was not driving at an excessive speed but might have been driving too fast for the bend."

Mr Williams said Mr Evans died of a fractured skull. Verdict: accidental death. The inquest into the death of Mr Attwood will resume today.