A VETINARY surgeon was more than twice the legal drink drive limit when he lost control of his speeding car and crashed in a fireball with the loss of three lives including two teenage passengers.

Ben Mason had been playing a 'dangerous' cat and mouse game with an Audi car with four juveniles in it, before his black BMW crashed into a large tree on the A390 near the village of St Ive, in April last year.

Driver Ben, 30, was killed instantly alongside his front seat passenger Jamie Lane, who was 18, and 16 year old back seat passenger Luke Warner.

Assistant coroner Stephen Covell was told Ben was 2.5 times the drink drive limit when the crash happened and the alcohol would have impaired his judgement.

PC Helen Lentern said Luke Warner had been in the Audi car - taken by a juvenile while his mother was on holiday without her consent - but had got out and slammed the door and then got into the BMW car at Kit Hill near Callington that night.

She said police were 'unable to prove' that the two cars had been racing each other along the 50mph road.

The officer said Ben's driving had been 'erratic' and the Audi came across the crashed BMW and saw it smoking.

Two of the Audi's occupants shouted at those in the BMW but believed they were dead and drove away from the scene. The Audi driver did not have a licence or insurance.

A witness said the BMW car then burst in a 'ball of fire' with the victims inside it.

Ben's body was severely burned and a pathologist said he died from multiple injuries, as did his two teenage passengers.

The coroner said Ben, who lived near Liskeard, had driven in an 'erratic and dangerous' manner before losing control on a slight bend and his car went over the carriageway and struck the large tree.

He recorded a conclusion of road traffic accident on Ben and the two teenagers who lived in Liskeard and were both described as 'the life and soul' by their mothers.