A MAN has been charged by police after a fatal road crash left a popular teenager dead.

James Slater, a 33-year-old man from Worthing, answered bail at Eastleigh police station this afternoon after a 3 month inquiry by the Road Death Investigation team.

Slater has been charged with being over the drink drive limit and driving without due care and attention. He has been bailed to appear before Isle of Wight Magistrates Court on Thursday, December 30, 2010.

Henry Martin Minns, aged 19, from Penryn, Cornwall was walking along Mersley Down Road near to the Bestival site shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 12, 2010 when he died after being involved in a collision with a silver Ford Focus.

A second man arrested at the same time in September by police believed to have been a passenger in the same Ford Focus, a 20-year-old from Wales, also answered bail and was released with no further action.

Henry Minns parents refused to comment on the development.