The inquest into the deaths of on a camping trip in North Wales has concluded that there were no warning signs ahead of the bend where the driver lost control of the car.
Jevon Hirst, 16, Wilf Fitchett and Harvey Owen, both 17, and Hugo Morris, 18, were found in an overturned, partially submerged car in Gwynedd in November 2023.
A search had been launched for the group, from Shrewsbury, after they had failed to return home.
The inquest also found that heavy rainfall had led to water in the ditch they landed in had riosen by a metre, leading to them drowning.
Senior coroner Kate Robertson will now issue a prevention of future deaths notice to the Department for Transport, which has 56 days to respond, calling for action and also copying in the DVLA.
It is due to her concerns there could be similar deaths if no signs are put up.
The opening of the inquest, held a week after their death, had heard that post-mortem examinations on all four teenagers showed the provisional cause of death to be drowning.
The full inquest had to wait for a police investigation to be concluded before it could take place.
Recording a verdict that they died in a road traffic accident, Ms Robertson today said that on November 21, last year at 10.04am a report was received by North Wales Police that a vehicle had been found in a drainage ditch near Garreg.
She said Hugo, who had not long passed his driving test, lost control and travelled down a steep embankment into a ditch. All four men would have died "very soon" by drowning, she said.
It had been raining heavily. The water in the ditch had risen by "almost a metre" and the vehicle was "submerged", she found
The coroner said there had also been an unsighted bend with no Araf/Slow sign and there was a right hand bend sign, but no chevron board warning.
This "did not provide adequate warning of the bend", she said.
The coroner says Hugo Morris was a relatively newly-qualified driver but was legally allowed to carry passengers, according to legislation at the time. There is no criticism of him in those regards, she said.
She added: "I find the use of cannabis is unlikely to have affected the cognitive function" of driver Hugo Morris.
The court heard how the car came off of the road on the A4085 in Garreg, near Tremadog in Gwynedd, about 75 miles from Shrewsbury, the town where the boys lived.
The inquest heard a statement from Sion Griffiths, a passenger in a recycling lorry, who described how he saw an upside-down Ford Fiesta in a ditch 10ft from the road
He checked the North Wales Police Facebook page post he had seen and confirmed it was the missing car and rang 999. He said that Some camping equipment was just behind the submerged vehicle and the rear window was smashed.
North Wales Police forensic collision investigator Ian Thompson gave evidence on how the crash occurred, as he stated that the Ford Fiesta had an "understeer" as it took the bend.
The area had seen heavy rain in the days leading up to the crash but that neither the rainy weather nor the road markings played any part in the cause of the crash.
The inquest had been forced to pause this morning after one of the victims' families questioned whether evidence regarding previous crashes had been omitted from consideration, but Mr Thompson said that police records dating back to 1994 showed no fatal or serious collisions on the bend.
Mr Thompson concluded that the driving ability of Mr Morris was "significant" in the crash which could have been avoided. Mr Morris passed his test just six months before the crash.
Melanie Hirst, mother of Jevon Hirst, said: "Jevon liked to socialise with his friends. He was a very loving son. He loved the outdoors and going walking. He was very close to his grandfather and loved to visit him in Harlech."
Dominic Morris said of his son Hugo Morris: "Skiing was his passion. He loved understanding people and people exploring.
"He was confident - a giver of warmth, joy, and mirth. He rarely criticised others and loved he could sense people's emotions and connect with these. He had fallen in love with north Wales. His mum helped him pack the car.
"He was happy and looking forward to the weekend. The world is shattered, bent, and crooked now. We know what he went on to do would have been wonderful. We work, we have friends, and smile and try to channel Hugo in our daily actions. The smile, the humanity - he is impossible to forget."
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