A DAY at a fun park ended in tragedy when a teenage driver lost control of his car.

Eighteen-year-old David Hamblett, of Sutherland Drive, Eastham, Wirral, died as he and girlfriend Helen Raynor travelled back from Waterworld in Stoke-on-Trent on June 3 last year.

An inquest in Chester yesterday into the student's death, heard by assistant deputy coroner of Cheshire, Dr Robert Hunter, heard how Mr Hamblett's Ford Escort drifted into oncoming traffic on the A51 at Tarvin and collided with a HGV driven by 34-year-old Michael Morgan.

The young couple, who had known each other for 10 months, had spent a couple of hours at Waterworld that day before heading back on the A51.

Miss Raynor, who sustained minor head injuries and bruising in the collision, described how the conditions on the road had been good and traffic steady.

On their journey home, Mr Hamblett noticed the car's engine was in danger of overheating and decided to turn up the internal heater to cool it down, opening the windows at the same time.

Miss Raynor, who, like Mr Hamblett, wasn't wearing a seatbelt, described how, a short time later, she realised their car was drifting into the wrong lane.

She shouted at Mr Hamblett, whom she believes was asleep and grabbed the steering wheel to try and straighten up the car, but didn't get any response.

Seconds later, she realised the car was just feet from the lorry. The collision sent the Escort spinning across the road and caused the lorry to veer right, up an embankment and into a field.

After regaining consciousness, Miss Raynor recalled: 'The car was pretty smashed up and David's seat had collapsed and was in the back seat.'

Mr Morgan was thrown 40ft through his windscreen after his lorry, carrying a 43-ton load of wheat, came to a standstill in the field. A mild asthmatic, Mr Morgan described how, just before feeling the impact of Mr Hamblett's car, he had glanced away for 'less than a second' to put his ventolin inhaler back into the lorry's central console, something he had done 'thousands of times before'.

Accident investigators said evidence indicated Mr Hamblett's car had drifted into the wrong lane as a result of him being distracted or falling asleep.

Dr Hunter concluded Mr Hamblett died as a result of multiple injuries.

Verdict: accidental death.