A CORONER recorded verdicts of accidental death at an inquest into the deaths of five teenagers killed instantly when their car span out of control and into the path of an oncoming vehicle.

The youths were out for the night at the end of the Christmas holidays when the accident happened near Market Bosworth, Leicestershire. The inquest in Hinckley heard the Ford Escort they were travelling in was split in two by the impact with a Peugeot 306 car heading in the opposite direction. Two men travelling in that car were seriously injured and one is still in hospital, the court heard. All five youths were schoolfriends and four came from the same village. Matthew Thompson, 19, Steven Van, 18, Michael Staniforth, 18, and 18-year-old Anthony Smith all died from multiple injuries, along with William Annan, 18. The coroner for Rutland and North Leicestershire, Philip Tomlinson, said it was utterly tragic the accident should result in the death of five young men. "They all had their lives before them," he said. "It was a celebration for the five of them. And all the families will remain close and remember the boys in our own ways."

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