A TEENAGER who died after crashing his car as he drove himself home from a night out at his local pub was more than two times over the legal alcohol limit, an inquest has heard.

George Ogborne, 17, was found dead by his father and brother on an isolated road near Boasley Cross in the early hours of Sunday, April 15 last year.

He was halfway out of his Ford Ranger pick up truck, with the vehicle on top of him on its side.

He had spent the evening celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Fox and Hounds Hotel near Bridestowe, where he regularly went on Saturday nights.

George’s father Mark Ogborne, his brother Charlie and Charlie’s girlfriend went looking for the teenager after he failed to return home to the family farm near Bratton Clovelly by 1.30am.

They took the a minor road over the A30 south of Boasley Cross which was the most direct route back from The Fox and Hounds.

‘We came across a vehicle lying on its side in the middle of the road at 90 degrees,’ said Mr Ogborne, in a statement read out at an inquest at County Hall, Exeter. ‘As I approached, I realised that the vehicle was George’s.

‘I could see George lying underneath the vehicle, and the vehicle was lying on its side. His legs were still inside the vehicle. ‘Myself and Charlie managed to lift the vehicle off George, and Charlie’s girlfriend started CPR on George.’

Paramedics and police arrived minutes later and continued attempting to resuscitate George without success. He was declared dead at the scene.

Mr Ogborne said his son was a ‘safe and confident’ driver who had been driving tractors on the farm for years. He passed his test the August before the accident.

The inquest on January 9 heard written evidence from David Luxton, bar manager of the Fox and Hounds Hotel, who has since been fined in court for serving alcohol to an underage drinker.

He said that George ‘seemed on pretty good form’ when he arrived at the pub and he sold him a pint of lager. George was joined by friends, who were celebrating the 18th birthday of another of the group. Mr Luxton said four of the group were the last to leave the bar when he locked up at 12.10am.

Just before 6am the following morning, the bar manager received a text to say the teenager had been killed.

He said he had not known the teenager was driving himself home.

‘George was the most sensible person in his group of friends and I was utterly devastated when I heard the news of his death,’ he said, in a statement read out at the inquest.

PC Nigel Cox, from the Devon and Cornwall Police crash investigation unit, said the teenager had lost control of his vehicle as he drove towards Boasley Cross.

‘It mounted the nearside verge and then collided with the offside bank before rolling over and coming to rest on its offside. The driver came out of the window and came to rest underneath the vehicle.’

The short distance the car had travelled after colliding with the bank suggested the car was not being driven with excessive speed, he said. However, the teenager was not wearing a seatbelt.

A post-mortem conducted by Home Office pathologist Dr Cook showed that the teenager had 172 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of blood.

He died after suffering asphyxia when his torso was crushed by the weight of the car, said the pathologist, which meant ‘oxygenated blood couldn’t be supplied to the brain, causing unconsciousness and death’. He said that ’intoxication’ had been ‘a significant contributory factor’.

Coroner Philip Spinney said: ‘The evidence showed that George lost control of the vehicle, causing the nearside wheels to leave the carriageway and this set in course the sequence of events which caused the vehicle to roll over.

‘It is most likely that the amount of alcohol consumed by George played a significant part in the collision. It is also likely that if he had been wearing a seatbelt he would not have been ejected from the vehicle.’

He gave the cause of death as ‘road traffic accident’ and expressed his condolences to the family.

George’s mother Wendy Ogden was at the inquest.

She said afterwards: ‘We all miss his smiling face so much and we hope people learn from this. I would like all his friends to learn from this, don’t drink and drive and always wear a seatbelt.’