A teenager who bolted suddenly into a road suffered severe brain injuries after being thrown into the air by a passing car and hitting his head on a concrete bollard, an inquest has heard.

David Beechy, 16, died 12 weeks later at a children’s hospice after hospital specialists gave him an “almost zero chance” of improving.

The collision happened outside Birkenshaw Post Office, in Bradford Road, in April.

At an inquest in Bradford yesterday, Assistant Deputy Coroner Roger Whittaker read a poignant card from student Mr Beechy’s family to the driver of the car, telling him he was not to blame.

The message said no one could know the pain and sadness the family felt unless they too were a parent who had lost a child. It also acknowledged driver Gareth Hopkins’s own distress.

He had been travelling at no more than 20mph in the 30mph zone and the impact had been just a glancing blow. It was “a tragic, devastating accident that could have been avoided if David had used the crossing”, the card read.

Witness accounts that were also read out, including one from an on-duty firefighter who stopped to help, described how David, who had some learning difficulties, ran out without looking between parked cars.

Driver Mr Hopkins sobbed at the back of the coroner’s court as Mr Whittaker summed up the case, saying it was an incident that “need not have happened and should not have happened if Mr Beechy had not run into the road”.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Whittaker said: “He (Mr Hopkins) could have done nothing to avoid it, stopping very quickly and trying to help. It was a tragic accident.”