A popular schoolboy familiar to millions after he appeared on TV show Benefits Street died after being knocked off his mountain bike, an inquest heard.
Riley Young-Hudson, 12, was fatally injured in a collision with a car.
Despite frantic efforts to save him, he died three days later at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle on April 1.
The youngster cycled into the path of a blue Audi, which was unable to stop in time, Teesside Coroner's Court heard.
His mum Louise Jenkins paid an emotional tribute to Riley, Teesside Live reports .
An accident report said no action was taken against the male driver, with police “satisfied he was not blameworthy for the collision”.
Riley, it was said, “either failed to see the approaching Audi or misjudged its close proximity”.
Now, determined that Riley’s death won’t be in vain, Louise plans to campaign for railings to be erected at the spot he crossed the road so that other youngsters won’t be able to get onto the busy carriageway so easily.
She told Teesside Live: “He was a character - a funny, kind, lovable boy. He loved babies and little kids - but if he was in a mood, he wasn’t someone to get on the wrong side of."
Louise said Riley, like many kids his age, was “always on his phone” or playing computer games like Roblox with his uncle Cameron, who was “like a brother to him”.
His school North Shore Academy, paid tribute to him after his death, saying he had an "endearing personality".
Louise said: “We were really close. I used to say wherever I went, he would sniff me out. He was my sidekick.
“Since it happened, every time I see a kid on a bike who looks like they might go into the road, I get palpitations and start sweating and shaking.
“He’d only had his bike three weeks. I’d got him it to try and get him to go to school.”
Five years ago, Riley briefly appeared in Benefits Street - a programme his grandmother, Julie Young, also featured heavily in.
Louise said: “She was heartbroken about Riley. She lost her own son and now she’s lost her first grandson too.
“She was with me in the RVI - she was my rock.”
She has also raised hundreds of pounds in a charity night at the Penny Black in Hartburn, Stockton, for the Great North Air Ambulance, which airlifted him to hospital on that fateful day.
And as she talks about her son, born when she was 15, she says movingly: “As soon as I saw him on the scan, it was instant love.”
On the day of the accident, Riley was cycling from home to his dad Anthony’s house in Tilery - meaning he had to cross the bypass.
Louise now hopes to get railings extended along the section where Riley got onto the road.
She said: “If they’d been there, it wouldn’t have happened because he couldn’t have got on to the road.
“Even now, I see kids coming from North Shore and crossing at the same place Riley crossed.
“People won’t lift their bikes over the railings - they’ll cross at the crossing point instead.
“I want to call them Riley’s Railings as a tribute to him.”
