Teenage car deaths prompts warning from coroner

Charlie Hopkins, 18, and Billy Robinson, 17, died following a collision in Tongham in 2021

The deaths of two boys in a car carrying eight teenagers which crashed in Surrey has prompted a coroner to ask the government to consider doing more to protect young people on the roads.

Speed and "drunkenness" contributed to the deaths of driver Charlie Hopkins, 18, and Billy Robinson, 17, following the collision in Oxenden Road, Tongham, in the early hours of 26 September 2021, an inquest concluded.

Mr Hopkins, from Frimley, who had passed his driving test just two weeks earlier, died at the scene. Mr Robinson, from Farnborough, Hampshire, was a front-seat passenger who died in hospital 10 weeks later. Six other teenage boys in the Volkswagen Polo survived.

Sam Robinson - Billy's mother - said the crash was “avoidable” and whenever she sees a VW Polo, “I just think, what were they thinking?”

Billy Robinson suffered catastrophic injuries and died 10 weeks after the crash

Mr Robinson had posted a video on social media from inside the vehicle before it crashed.

His mother said she could not bring herself to view the footage, but had been told about its contents by friends.

She told the BBC: “The music was loud, and they were chanting - it looked like a party car.

“I have no doubt that the driver felt that there was pressure on him and he was trying to concentrate.”

Coroner Anna Crawford said it was possible the "inexperience” of the driver and the presence of so many passengers may also have played a part.

She is writing to the Department for Transport (DfT) to ask it to consider further steps to "protect young drivers" and "reduce fatalities".

Charlie Hopkins the driver of the vehicle, had passed his test two weeks before the crash

The inquest in Woking, which concluded on Tuesday, heard the teenagers had left a birthday party when their vehicle was in collision with a taxi.

There were eight teenage boys in the small hatchback - two in the front, five in the back and one in the boot.

The VW Polo hit a curb as it approached a roundabout and veered onto the wrong side of the road, hitting the taxi coming in the opposite direction.

Mr Robinson was a talented footballer who had been training to become an electrician.

His mother described him as her “blue-eyed boy” and said emptiness “surrounds” the family every day.

“There's Billy’s empty room. The empty chair around the kitchen table. But you also grieve everything that he's missing out on in life.”

Sam Robinson is campaigning for tougher rules for new drivers

Mrs Robinson is now part of the Forget-me-not Families Uniting campaign group of bereaved parents which is petitioning the government to introduce a graduated licensing system for new drivers.

It would involve a minimum number of learning hours, curfews and a ban on carrying passengers for a limited period of time.

Graduated schemes have been adopted in countries including the United States, Australia and Ireland.

*Watch on BBC IPlayer: Drive Fast Die Young

According to government figures, one in five young drivers crash within a year of passing their test, and more than 1,500 young drivers are killed or seriously injured on roads each year.

Mrs Robinson said: “I know for sure that if it was law in this country my Billy would be living this life like he should be.”

'Tragic incident'

The coroner concluded the car had been speeding and it’s driver was over the legal alcohol limit, and that both factors had contributed to the collision.

The inquest also heard the airbag system on the car had been disabled during a previous ownership and had not deployed at the time of impact.

Had the airbags worked the driver’s injuries would have been “less severe and he would have survived,” the coroner said. However, Mr Robinson would still have died.

The coroner intends to send three prevention of future deaths reports, to the DfT, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and vehicle servicing trade associations.

The DfT earlier this year said the UK has “some of the safest roads in the world” and it had no plans for further restrictions on younger drivers.

In a statement, Surrey Police said: "This was a tragic incident resulting in the loss of the lives of two teenagers, and our thoughts are with the family and friends of Charlie and Billy on what will have been a very difficult day for them all.

"The collision will have also had a long-lasting effect on the other passengers who were in the car."

Mrs Robinson and her son Billy