Dylan Crossey: Teenager's mum breaks down as she comes face to face with the driver who knocked down her son

Tracey Milligan sat across the courtroom from driver David Harwood as he was questioned about the late night smash in October 2016 which tragically claimed her son’s life.

Harwood, 46, was giving evidence on day three of the hearing at County Hall in Preston on Wednesday morning.

When he entered the room Ms Milligan wept and had to be consoled by family and friends.

And later she broke down again as he described the moment his car “hit something in the road” as he was driving to see a woman he had only just met on a dating website.

“All of a sudden there was a bang,” he told Lancashire Coroner Dr James Adeley. “I didn’t see anything at all. I don’t know what hit the car.

“It was quite a loud bang and I noticed there was some damage to the windscreen on the left hand side. “

Harwood, a former vehicle damage assessor and director of the family firm HB Panelcraft, admitted he had failed to stop at the scene and carried on with his journey to Buckshaw Village.

“I just drove,” he added. “I just carried on. I was just shocked.”

Pushed by the coroner that he should have stopped to check what he had hit, he said: “With hindsight I absolutely should have stopped the car. Yes.”

Harwood’s brother Neil had been warned by the coroner yesterday (Tuesday) about failing to answer questions about a statement he gave the day after the tragedy in which he told police David had told him and their father that he had been “punching in” the postcode of his online date when the collision occurred.

When asked about his brother’s original claims that he had been distracted by the satnav system he replied “absolutely not.”

David Harwood claimed he had put the address into the device before he had set off driving from his home in New Longton.

Asked why he had not examined the damage to his car when he arrived at the woman’s house and had left it until the following day to look at the vehicle he said: “I should have done. Absolutely. “

The inquest heard that after spending around 25 minutes at the woman’s house he left to drive back home, but took a different route back which meant he did not pass the scene of the crash in Chainhouse Lane.

He insisted he had taken that route because it was where satnav took him.

Proceeding