TRIBUTES have been pouring in from workers at a Ribble Valley firm for a popular young colleague who was killed in a car crash on Thursday.

Gareth John Dickins, 18, of York Street, Clitheroe, died when his "pride and joy" Ford Capri spun out of control on a canal bridge in Blackburn Road, Clayton-le-Moors.

Paramedics spent 45 minutes trying to revive him after firefighters cut him from the wreckage, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The popular youngster was a trainee mechanic at J&R Contractors in Rimington, near Clitheroe.

He was a day release student at Accrington and Rossendale College and had nipped out to buy some parts for his car when the accident occurred. Proprietor of the firm Robert Hewitt said the youngster was a talented mechanic with a promising career. "He started with us as a Saturday boy from school. He really was a brilliant lad, very popular and one of the team. He was mature and talented and would arrive at work full of enthusiasm.

"He took his career very seriously and was doing very well at college, even taking extra studies in welding.

"We thought the world of him and workers have been coming up to me all day expressing their sympathies. We are all devastated."

Accrington and Rossendale College principal Michael Austin said the youngster's death was a "terrible loss of life" and his thoughts were with his family.

An inquest was opened in Blackburn and adjourned until april 28 by coronor Andre Rebello.

It was told that Gareth was identified by his mother, Mrs Dawn Fielding.

Home Office pathologist Dr John Rutherford gave the cause of death as chest trauma.

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