AN inquest yesterday recorded an open verdict on a teenager who ran in front of a bus.

Andrew Ransom was still grieving the death of his cousin, Ashleigh Reed, in a motorcycle accident the year before when he ran into Yarm Lane, Stockton, and under the wheels of a coach.

An inquest in Middlesbrough heard that the 16-year-old, who was on a rehabilitation course following heroin addiction, was angry when he darted into rush-hour traffic.

Forensic tests found he had taken ten diazepam tablets on the day he died. Pathologist Christopher Rettman said: "He may have been a little confused. He had a minimum of ten, it could be more. He was confused, in my opinion."

Andrew's girlfriend, Joanne Stockton, said he was desperate to leave the Turnaround Homes hostel in Stockton, where he had been staying.

Minutes before he died, Social Service officials told him he would have to wait his turn before he could leave the hostel.

He was sitting on a roadside bench eating chips with Joanne and became angry.

The inquest was told that she asked him not to shout and he got up and ran into the traffic.

Douglas Gaunt, who had been driving the coach that hit Andrew, said in a police statement: "I was just driving along Yarm Lane and he appeared from nowhere. I just hit the brakes.

"I just saw him in the front of my windscreen, I had no idea where he came from."

Crash investigator PC Paul Hunter said the cause of the accident was "pedestrian error".

Recording an open verdict, Coroner Michael Sheffield said Mr Gaunt was in no way to blame for what happened.

Andrew's mother, Sandra Reed, had told Mr Sheffield: "He wanted to be with Ashleigh, that is what he used to say.

"He had tried that a few times, to take his own life."

After the inquest, she comforted Mr Gaunt, saying the accident was not his fault.

She told The Northern Echo: "We were not too sure whether he tried to kill himself, because he was capable of that."