A TEENAGE driver from Bromsgrove was fatally injured when his car was involved in a collision with a six-and-a-half ton truck.

Benjamin Jan-Paul Thomas Townsend had just dropped his sister off when a Ford Iveco recovery lorry ploughed into his Metro.

Emergency services helped free 18-year-old Mr Townsend who was unconscious, but he later died.

Poor visibility because of parked cars could have hampered both drivers' vision, the inquest at Kidderminster Town Hall heard last Wednesday, April 25.

The crash happened shortly before midnight on August 25 in Birmingham Road, Norton, Bromsgrove, at the Townsend Avenue junction.

Traffic and operations officer PC Susan Newman said skid marks from the Iveco were on the wrong side of the road.

"The presence of parked cars would have forced Birmingham-bound cars on part of the other side of the road," she said.

Truck driver Richard Stevens, who was travelling towards Birmingham, said he was doing about 30mph but could not do anything about the accident.

He told police: "I tried to swerve round him. He just seemed to carry on, I couldn't do anything, I braked and skidded and the front of the truck went straight into the car's side.

"By the time I saw him it was too late."

Mr Townsend, from Chesworth Road, had been working with his student sister, Laura, at the Ladybird Inn and was giving her a lift to see her boyfriend in nearby Walton Road.

"I heard the noise of a crash and sound of brakes," she said.

Deputy coroner Tim Sherwood said: "It seems Mr Stevens was suddenly confronted with the red Metro in the road and there was no action he could take to avoid collision."

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.