TWO teenage friends killed when their car hit a tree were not wearing seatbelts and the driver had been drinking.

Car fanatics Richard Harvey and Ross Hodgkins, both aged 18, died on the A44 Bromyard to Worcester road at Crown East, near Cotheridge.

An inquest in Stourport-on-Severn heard both men suffered severe multiple injuries and died outright.

Richard, who was an apprentice mechanic of Helford Close, Ronkswood, Worcester, was driving his silver Peugeot 106, with Ross his passenger.

A urine sample showed 111ml of alcohol per 100ml, above the legal drink-drive limit of 107ml.

His blood sample showed he was slightly under the limit however.

Ross, of Goldsmith Road, Warndon, Worcester, had not been drinking.

The pair had been visiting Ross's sister Carly and other friends in Bromyard on Thursday, September 15, before they crashed on their way home, at about 11.45pm.

Coroner Victor Round said police conducted an "enormous inquiry" and discovered that neither man was wearing a seatbelt.

The car's front tyres were found to be partly bald.

He said evidence suggested Richard lost control of the vehicle while driving around a bend on a damp road, but there was no way of telling how fast they were travelling.

He said: "They wouldn't have known anything about it. It would have all been over in a flash.

"The damage to the car looked pretty alarming."

Mr Round said the defective tyres, the road conditions and

Richard's alcohol level could have contributed to the crash but other factors would remain a mystery.

He added: "We don't know how fast they were going. There might have been other contributing factors.

"It's a little bit too easy to say that because the two tyres were defective and the alcohol level was somewhat, although not grossly, over the legal limit, this caused the crash.

"There may well have been something else. We just don't know."

Richard, known to his friends as Squints, was a keen sportsman, having played hockey for Worcestershire and football for Nunnery Wood Colts.

Ross, who played football, ice hockey and golf, had just started a course in car mechanics at Evesham College.

The pair became friends at Nunnery Wood High School, Worcester, and were both involved in the city's car "cruising" scene, involving groups of young people who spend money souping up their vehicles and meeting.

A massive memorial cruise was organised in their memory and attracted hundreds of car enthusiasts to Worcester.

The coroner recorded accidental death verdicts on both men.