A CORONER has recorded an open verdict into the deaths of a ten-year-old boy and his teenage sister after a car crash near Durham City.

Lee Armstrong was a front-seat passenger in a Citroen Saxo driven by his 19-year-old sister, Jenna, when it crashed with a Nissan Micra, driven by 78-year-old Thomas Theobald.

The inquest was told that the Nissan pulled into the Citroen's path from a junction.

Although witnesses said the Citroen was travelling at high speed, the hearing was told that Mr Theobald, should have seen it in good time.

Accident investigator PC Keith Butler, who attended the scene of the crash on October 9, last year, said the A693, between Stanley and Chester-le-Street, near Durham City, at its junction with the West Pelton junction, 'resembled the scene of an aircraft crash more than anything else.'

He said when the Citroen hit the Nissan it became airborne.

It then collided with a Honda Civic travelling in the opposite direction, driven by Ian Routh, of Chester-le-Street.

A fourth car was hit by flying debris. There were no skid marks at the scene, said PC Butler.

The policeman told the inquest that Mr Theobald should have had plenty of time to see the approaching Citroen. It would have been in view for 14.9 seconds had it been travelling at 60mph, and for ten seconds at 90mph - which he believed was the car's maximum speed.

North Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle said he had been 'tempted' to record a verdict of unlawful killing, but he said: "I am going to return an open verdict, which I do not think I have ever done."

Mr Theobald and his wife, and the driver and passenger of the Honda, suffered minor injuries.

Jenna and Lee lived with their mother, Karen, in Perkinsville, near Chester-le-Street.

After the hearing, their father Ray Armstrong, a retired policeman, of Shiney Row, said: "I feel no personal malice against Mr Theobald."

* Thomas Theobald, of Pelton, will face a charge of careless driving before Consett magistrates on May 19.