A TEENAGER who died after falling from her bike lay undiscovered on a winter’s night and froze to death, an inquest heard.

Gemma Hinds, 19, suffered hypothermia after she was knocked unconscious when she fell on Iveston Road, Delves Lane, Consett, County Durham, yards from her home.

The hearing was told she had been reported missing by her family and police had searched the area, but not the small car park where she lay unnoticed until the following morning.

Detective Sergeant Scott Jameson told the hearing in Crook yesterday: “She was found near her house.

“The car park itself had not been looked at or searched.”

The alarm was raised shortly after 6am by a resident on the morning of January 18.

DS Jameson said: “In Consett that week it had been extremely cold. It had been snowing.

“On the night in question temperatures had fallen to -4c. It was extremely icy.”

Miss Hinds was unconscious and an ambulance was called.

Paramedics tried to give her CPR and she was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham but she could not be saved.

The hearing was told a post mortem examination, carried out by a Home Office pathologist, had concluded the cause of death was as a result of hypothermia.

Miss Hinds, a student, had lived at nearby West Ellimore View in Delves Lane.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

DS Jameson said an investigation had concluded she had fallen while taking a short cut.

He said: “It was quite clear from observations that the bike came across the field and down the embankment. There were skid marks, and grass and mud underneath the pedals. The handlebars were bent indicating some sort of impact.”

“There were scratch marks in the ice and sand where it had skidded horizontally across the car park.”

Oliver Longstaff, assistant coroner of County Durham, recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He said: “Concern was raised and the police have gone out to look for her.

“What was not anticipated is that that by the time the alarm was raised Gemma had already come home and taken a short cut and come to grief in treacherous conditions.

“The reason Gemma did not get up having crashed her bike is she was unconscious.

“By the time she had come round after the impact she had already succumbed to the effects of hypothermia.

“She would have been unconscious when she hit the deck and would have been unconscious when hypothermia set in. She wasn’t in pain.

“This is a death which can be described as a tragic accident.”