THE family of a Ramsbottom teenager who died when doctors failed to spot 18 broken bones after a car accident is at the centre of a landmark legal challenge.

Grieving parents Kevin and Christine Hitchen were unable to claim bereavement damage because their son, Nicholas, was too old to be protected by the law.

Now, lawyers acting for the Hitchens have involved Government ministers in a dispute over whether this and other similar cases breach human rights legislation.

Nicholas (19), of Whittingham Drive, was killed in June 2001 in a car crash in Crostons Road, Bury. He was taken to Bury General Hospital complaining of severe chest pains, but later died. A post mortem revealed that he had 16 rib fractures, a fractured breastbone and a fractured collarbone, which doctors had failed to detect.

Bury's coroner Mr Barrie Williams recorded a verdict of misadventure and a damning report later blamed the hospital for the lack of a trauma team to provide emergency life support.

However, Nicholas's parents discovered they were not entitled to any 'bereavement' damages because their son was a year too old to qualify for his life to be protected by the law.

Under the Fatal Accidents Act, certain groups of people are entitled to statutory damages of £10,000. Parents are entitled to damages for 'bereavement' over their children, but only if they are under 18.

Now, this ruling is to be challenged under the human rights legislation by the family's lawyers, Norfolk-based clinical negligence specialists Cunningham John.

Partner Simon John has met Home Office minister Lord Falconer and Solicitor General Harriet Harman on behalf of the Hitchen family and others in a similar position, to claim that the present position is unlawful.

He points out that the European Convention on Human Rights, now incorporated into domestic law, declares that "everyone's right to life shall be protected by law".

Mr John said: "Everyone means just that, not just a limited category of people. One of the ways the law protects human life is by providing compensation where that right to life is breached, but only for a few people.

"So the law is discriminatory and it also breaks another part of the Human Rights Act, Article 14, which prohibits against discrimination on any grounds. The Law Commission pointed out the problem several years ago, but the Government has done nothing to rectify it."

The Hitchens are also currently investigating taking legal action against the hospital. Their main concern remains that there was no trauma team on duty to provide emergency life support to their son, as recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons.