A CORONER has slammed the events which resulted in paramedics leaving a teenager's body lying in the road for more than an hour.

Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Coroner Michael Singleton said he was appalled by the actions of West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service.

The service was called in by North Yorkshire Police, which attended the crash that killed 19-year-old Thomas Henry Carr on the Settle Road near Clitheroe in August last year.

An inquest heard that paramedics pronounced life was extinct but they then left, leaving the body by the roadside.

Thomas' body lay in the road for more than an hour with police officers before an ambulance from Lancashire Ambulance Service was able to attend and take it to Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

West Yorkshire Ambulance bosses have since vowed to review the paramedics' actions.

But after the inquest hearing a spokesman said they were acting on instructions from police and insist they acted within guidelines.

The inquest heard that Thomas, of Chapel Street, Slaidburn, was travelling along Settle Road towards Clitheroe when the accident happened about three miles north of the Copy Nook Hotel about 3.20am on Sunday August 5. The inquest heard that Thomas, who worked at Clitheroe-based accident repair centre James Alpe Ltd and was a former pupil at Bolton-by-Bowland High School, was thrown out of his Land Rover Discovery after losing control of the vehicle on a left-hand bend and hitting a tree. Thomas suffered multiple injuries and died instantly. He had been drinking and was not wearing a seatbelt, the inquest heard.

Coroner Michael Singleton said: "It is perhaps not a matter for this inquest to investigate matters that happen after the point of death, but I have to say I am appalled that West Yorkshire Ambulance Service, having pronounced life was extinct, no longer felt responsible to take any action with regard to ensuring that Thomas Carr's body might forthwith be taken to hospital.

"It appeared that his body lay in the road for some considerable period of time and that seems totally and completely unacceptable."

Speaking after the inquest, John Calderbank, secretary for Lancashire Ambulance Service Trust board, said although the accident happened in the Lancashire area, West Yorkshire was called to the scene by North Yorkshire Police -- which received the 999 call. Lancashire Police, having taken up the case from North Yorkshire Police, instructed the West Yorkshire crew to leave the body while inquiries continued, and a Lancashire crew was called out around 5am to take the body to hospital.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: "We will take the coroner's comments on board and we will review the case along with the police. However our crew acted under instruction from the police and within our procedural guidelines." Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "I shall be contacting the coroner and I shall be finding out more about the case and passing the details on to Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

"I would hope that he would call personally for a full report.

"We need some new guidelines, regardless of county boundaries and West Yorkshire Ambulance Service should have taken this young man's body to the nearest hospital."

Toxicology reports showed Thomas had drunk more than one-and-a-half times the legal limit of alcohol.

Mr Singleton said: "Driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs is not only dangerous but socially unacceptable." He recorded a verdict of accidental death.

The family was too upset to speak after the inquest. Mr Alpe, who employed Thomas for almost a year as an apprentice painter up to his death, said: "He was very well liked and a lot of people were upset by what happened."

Nobody from Lancashire Police was available to comment.