TWO schoolboys who were killed by a train while playing on rail tracks had drunk the equivalent of four to five pints of lager, an inquest was told yesterday.

And last night, the heartbroken father of one of the boys led calls for a crackdown on under-age drinking.

Stuart Adams, 15, and Lee Mullis, 14, were with more than 20 youngsters who had gathered under the Five Arches Bridge in Darlington on Good Friday - the first day of their school holidays.

Pathologist Dr Jonathan Hoffman told the inquest large quantities of alcohol had been found in their blood and urine, amounting to more than twice the drink-drive limit.

The quantity was equivalent to up to five pints of beer in an adult body and was enough to alter their judgement, he said.

After the inquest, Stuart's father, Trevor Adams, demanded action to end the culture of binge-drinking among youths to prevent another tragedy.

"We have to make certain nothing like this happens again to a family," he told The Northern Echo.

"It is not something we can do overnight, but it has to be done. We haven't gone through this hell on earth for nothing at all."

His plea was echoed by Councillor John Williams, leader of Darlington Borough Council.

He said: "This is a cultural issue and that is difficult to crack. But the council will do anything it can, in partnership with others, to make sure this doesn't happen again."

PC Vince Myhan, of Darlington police's StreetSafe unit, which works with young people, said licensees often felt intimidated by groups of youths.

"They feel pressurised to sell alcohol, or they will get their windows broken," he said.

"Older people also buy alcohol for younger ones, but it doesn't take a genius to work out if a bloke is buying 15 bottles of White Lightning, he is not going to sit down in the park and drink it alone.

"Binge drinking is a huge problem in Darlington, it is part of the culture unfortunately."

He said all the off-licences in the Cockerton and Branksome areas of Darlington had signed up to a police-led over-21s policy at weekends and invited other licensees to join in.

After an emotional hearing yesterday, the jury at Chester-le-Street, under the direction of the coroner, returned verdicts of accidental death. Coroner Andrew Tweddle said it had been a particularly distressing case and said it should serve as a warning to people across the country.

Train driver Andy Scott, a father-of-one, from Morpeth, Northumberland, fought back tears as he recalled the moment he had seen a figure in front of his train.

He said: "Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of some movement and saw someone basically just run, not in the upright position, in more of a crouching position, from the left-hand side, straight in front of the train on to the line. There was nothing I could do."

Mr Tweddle stressed that there was no evidence the two boys, pupils at Darlington's Longfield Comprehensive, had been playing a game of chicken.

PC James Calvert, the first police officer on the scene, also fought back tears as he told the inquest the boys' friends had run to him, pulling at his clothing hysterically as he arrived at the bridge.

One boy from the group showed him where the boys had scaled a 6ft fence to get on to the tracks, where he found the bodies.

Sergeant Nigel Ashworth, of the British Transport Police, said up to 28 children who had been with Lee and Stuart that night had been interviewed.

He said Stuart and Lee's friends had begged them to get off the tracks as they heard the train coming.