Mum took motorbike keys from her daredevil son, 17, because he had been drinking - he found the spares and died in a crash
12.06.2023 - 20:33
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A boy of 17 wasn't wearing a helmet and was over the limit when he suffered fatal injuries in a motorbike crash, an inquest has heard.
Before the crash Stuart Macleod's mum was so concerned she took the keys to his machine only for the teenager to find the spares and ride away from his home to meet friends.
The teenager suffered suffered fatal brain injuries when he crashed into a parked car on Manchester Road in Mossley at 8pm on Friday September 16 last year. The factory worker died at Salford Royal Hospital two days later.
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Today (Monday) an inquest heard police found selfie-videos from Stuart's phone which showed him looking 'elated' as he rode the machine moments before the crash.
Raised in Preston in Lancashire, Stuart got his first quad bike aged just three, his mother Rositsa Spencer-Smith told the inquest in Stockport.
A safety-pin on the machine limited the speed but 'fearless' Stuart, nicknamed 'Bab-bam' after the character in the Flintstones by his family, would remove it so he could go faster, the court heard.
It took him a year to get over a crash into a barrier but after that 'his confidence grew', he started riding again and he would perform 'doughnuts', according to Mrs Spencer-Smith.
In primary school he was a 'character' and 'something of a joker' who would engage in 'silly behaviour' but it was 'never anything nasty' and he would not hurt others, said his mother in a statement read out in court.
A bright boy, he sometimes argued with his teachers because of the way they taught maths but he understood it 'pretty quickly' when his former teacher mother taught it to him, the inquest was told.
Although he was intelligent, Stuart