A YOUNG father was not wearing a seatbelt when a collision with a van catapulted him on to the road, an inquest has heard.
It is not known if Dominic Christophers would have survived the crash near the Treluswell roundabout at Penryn on October 29 last year had he been strapped in.
The 21-year-old builder had been travelling from St Austell to a job in Helston on the A39 when he lost control of the silver Ford Focus and veered into an oncoming Mercedes van.
The inquest in Truro heard on Monday he and Callum Matta were thrown through the passenger door as their car spun.
Mr Matta was seriously hurt and Mr Christophers, from Lanlivery near Bodmin, died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital of head and internal injuries.
Gary Looker, a police forensic collision investigator, told the hearing the evidence "suggests strongly" that neither wore a seatbelt.
He could not say whether a seatbelt would have saved Mr Christophers, he said, but added that in all his years investigating crashes, "I'm not aware of a job where someone wearing a seatbelt has been physically ejected from a car".
A rear tyre on the Focus was under-inflated and worn down, which could have caused it to aquaplane on surface water left by storms. In a statement, his mother, Wendy Christophers, said he had asked to borrow money to replace the tyre on the evening before he died.
Mr Matta said his friend had been driving "normally and sensibly" before the crash and the road conditions had been fine.
Mr Matta had taken his seatbelt off to reach his lunchbox on the back seat and forgot to put it back on.
He said: "We were talking about mobile phones and suddenly the rear end of the car slid out.
"I was aware we were in the middle lane and out of control. It all happened so quickly. After we were hit by the van ... I next recalled lying on the road surface in shock and in pain."
The driver of the Mercedes, roofer Nicholas Bird, travelling to work with his brother Adam, told the court he saw the Focus veer towards him, but had no time to react.
There was no evidence Mr Christophers had been speeding, and a post- mortem examination confirmed he had no alcohol or drugs in his system.
Coroner Emma Carlyon recorded a verdict that he died as a result of a road traffic collision from bleeding within the skull and a ruptured spleen.
