A teenage motorcyclist was more than four times the legal drink-drive limit and high on cannabis when he died following a late night accident on a country road.

Adam Puxty, 16, was not wearing a crash helmet and had no lights on the off-road bike when he drove out of a lane and collided with a car on the A267 Little London Road at Heathfield.

Adam, a student of Newnham Way, Heathfield, was riding a Suzuki bike owned by a friend to a garage to get fuel when the accident happened at about 11.30pm.

The inquest was told that the bike, which had no speedometer or number plates and under-inflated tyres, was ridden for fun by local teenagers in woods and sometimes on the road, although they knew it was illegal.

On the night of the crash Adam was warned by friends not to ride the bike because he was drunk. He had only travelled a short distance when he collided with a Mitsubishi Gallant driven by teaching assistant Dawn Littlehayes, 48, who was on her way home after an evening out with a friend in Uckfield.

Ms Littlehayes, of Heathfield, said she did not see the bike before the rider suddenly smashed into her windscreen.

She said: “We didn’t know what had hit us, whether it was a deer or a dog.”

The two women got out of the car and after seeing the bike on the ground started searching in the darkness for the rider, who they found lying fatally injured on the grass verge.

A police investigation concluded Ms Littlehayes had no chance to avoid the collision and the crash was caused by Adam driving, without lights, directly into the path of her car.

East Sussex Coroner Alan Craze recorded a verdict of death caused by a road traffic collision.

He said: “There is no way this poor lady saw him approach.

She had absolutely no chance of doing anything about it.

“She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The coroner said Adam made a serious mistake riding the bike while heavily drunk and high on cannabis while not wearing a helmet and with no lights on June 28, 2007.

He said: “We all make mistakes when we are young.

Most of us survive and learn life’s lessons.

“The real tragedy of Adam’s death is he doesn’t get a second chance.”

alison.cridland @theargus.co.uk