A fun-loving teenager was run over and killed as she demonstrated her "funky chicken" dance on a busy dual carriageway.

Danielle Cole watched in horror as her best friend Stacey Norton, 18, was struck by a taxi.

Ms Norton made her friends laugh with the routine, which involved strutting and flapping her elbows at her sides.

The young mother had enjoyed a night out in Newcastle when the incident happened at 2.20am on July 24 last year, an inquest heard.

Her family are still coming to terms with the tragedy and are sharing responsibility for caring for Ms Norton's two-year-old daughter, Abbie.

At an inquest in Gateshead, Ms Cole relived the events leading up to the incident.

She described how they had been drinking and were dropped off by taxi in Teams, Gateshead, to go for one last drink at the home of Ms Norton's sister, Cheryl.

The friends, who were wearing white, crossed one section of the dual carriageway, then climbed over a metal barrier to cross the other two lanes.

Ms Cole said: "Stacey was singing and I was laughing at her.

"Stacey then said, 'Have you seen my funky chicken dance?' I looked to my left, saw a car coming towards us. It seemed a long way off.

"I saw Stacey step off into the carriageway. I didn't see her look towards the car. The next thing she was hit by the car and was flung up in the air.

"I would say Stacey was tipsy, not drunk. She was laughing and happy," she said.

Taxi driver Nigel Pike was taking three passengers from the Baja Beach Club to the Travel Lodge at the MetroCentre in his Skoda Octavia, driving at 50 to 55mph on the 70mph road when he suddenly saw a "white flash" in front of him and heard a thud.

No court action was taken against Mr Pike. He told police he realised he must have hit someone but didn't recall seeing any pedestrians before seeing the white flash.

He said he had been fully concentrating on his driving and hadn't been distracted by anything.

Accident reconstruction expert PC Raymond Aitman said: "There are two reasons for the accident.

"One, the driver of the Skoda has failed to observe the hazard in the carriageway ahead of two pedestrians climbing over a barrier and to take the necessary avoiding action. Two, Stacey has attempted to cross a section of the road an inappropriate location without regard for her own safety and her level of intoxication may have impaired her judgement to cross the road and correctly assess traffic."

Gateshead Coroner, Terence Carney, recording a verdict of accidental death, told Ms Norton's family that it was not his job to point the finger of blame at anyone or criticise the conduct of any individual on this particular day.