A HEREFORDSHIRE teenager died after overtaking on the wrong side of the road, an inquest heard.

Gary Carl Harriss died on the A449 at Preston Cross while travelling towards Ross-on-Wye.

He collided head-on with a Volkswagen Fox travelling in the opposite direction.

The coroner heard that Mr Harriss, a former pupil at John Masefield High School, Ledbury, suffered multiple injuries after overtaking a Nissan pickup truck in his grey Citroen Saxo on May 17.

The 18-year-old, who was a student at Herefordshire College of Technology, died at the scene of the accident.

Peter James, who was driving the pickup truck, said the first he saw of Mr Harriss was when he was being overtaken.

"I was surprised he overtook me in that position as there was a solid white line in the middle of the road," he said. "I felt there was adequate time for him to come back to our side of the road but he stopped on the wrong side for too long."

The speed limit was 60mph but Mr Harriss was driving about 70mph and the VW was driving on the right side of the road, Mr James added.

John Ayres, from Ledbury, whose VW caught fire after the collision, told the inquest he struggled to remember the accident.

"All I can recall is some kind of shadow coming over the brow. The next thing I remember is the fire brigade cutting me out of the car," he said.

"I don't remember much at all and I don't remember braking or swerving."

PC Alan Paton, an accident investigator based in Leominster, said Mr Harriss' view was "severely restricted".

"Any type of overtaking manoeuvre at this point can only be described as highly dangerous," he stated.

A report by Michael Saunders, a police accident investigator, also stated the Citroen had incorrectly inflated tyres which could have affected the performance of the car in wet road conditions.

Mark Bricknell, deputy coroner for Herefordshire, said Mr Harriss died of multiple injuries and recorded a verdict of accidental death.

"This was a young man with a future ahead of himself," he said. "This is a terribly sad incident."

Mr Harriss was born in South Africa and moved with his family to Ross-on-Wye when he was 10.

He later moved to Ledbury and was studying to become an accountant.