A novice driver is likely to have lost control of her vehicle through inexperience, rather than excessive speed, causing her to crash and drown in the canal at Skipton, an inquest heard.

Charlotte Wade, 18, died in the early hours of Sunday, May 10, only two days after passing her driving test at the first attempt.

The accident came a year after young friends Sarah Woolmer and Larissa Moore, both of Skipton, drowned within yards of the same spot when their vehicle crashed into the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.

Recording a verdict of accidental death yesterday, Coroner Geoff Fell said Charlotte, a former Skipton Girls’ High School pupil who had plans to join the Royal Navy, might have attempted to drive round the difficult corner at Niffany Corner in Broughton Road slightly faster than she should have, but was probably not over the speed limit.

In the accident, front seat passenger James Boyd escaped with minor injuries when he was rescued from the submerged Ford Focus by another friend, Joe Poynton, who had been following in his own car.

Mr Poynton had jumped into the canal to try to rescue his friends, eventually managing to get one door open to get Mr Boyd out. A third passenger, Robin Gibbs, who was in the back of the car remained trapped in the vehicle until police arrived. He remains in Airedale General Hospital where his condition is described as stable, but does continue to require specialist care.

Mr Boyd told the inquest that it was only the second time he had been in the car with Charlotte driving since she had passed her test. He said he thought she would have been doing between 40 and 45mph when she went round the two corners near Niffany Farm.

He told the inquest: “I could see she had almost crossed the white line and as we went round the second corner she whipped the wheel round because she was going to hit the fence. The car went sideways and I undid my seatbelt and then we went into the canal. It all went dark and the car started to fill with water. I felt Charlotte grab me and then I could hear or see nothing.”

At the hearing, Charlotte’s father, Graham, of Butterhaugh Farm, near Gargrave, praised the actions of Keith Marshall, of Niffany Farm, who had raced to the scene of the accident when he heard a noise and saw lights. Mr Marshall got there within minutes and went into the water to fit a chain to the car to lift it out of the canal using his tractor.

Mr Wade said he and his wife were going to continue pressing the highways authority for stronger barriers at the crash site to prevent another tragedy.

Mr Fell accepted that although it was Charlotte’s inexperience in driving that caused the accident, it would not have ended in such a tragic way if there had been proper barriers there.

“If there had been barriers there she would not have gone into the canal, but the local authority cannot defend every possible eventuality,” he said.