A SOUTHAMPTON schoolboy died after being flung through a car window, an inquest heard.

Robert Twigg, 17, was catapulted into the road after the car he was travelling in collided side-on with another vehicle at a junction of the A30 near Stockbridge.

He suffered head injuries in the accident and later died at Southampton General Hospital.

Robert, from Horseshoe Drive, Romsey, was in the back of his friend's Renault Clio when they turned right from the C172 into the path of an oncoming car.

Andrew Stewart, 18, from Romsey, who was driving the Clio, and another passenger suffered only minor injuries in the collision at 7.15pm on Friday, December 29.

Robert, who was deputy head boy at Southampton's King Edward VI School, was planning to study at Oxford or Cambridge.

The driver of the black Rover 214, Ben Robinson, a sports assistant from Stockbridge, was unhurt.

Simon Burge, deputy Mid-Hants coroner, recorded a verdict of accidental death at the Winchester inquest.

He said: "It clearly was due to a fatal combination of factors including an error of judgement, no road lights and partially indistinguishable road markings.

"But if Mr Stewart had checked carefully this would not have happened."

A memorial service will be held for Robert tomorrow at King Edward VI School and a drama studio will be named after him.