A TEENAGE hitchhiker has died after being hit by a van as he thumbed a lift.

Floral tributes have been left beside the A41 near Chesterton, at the spot where the accident happened.

Army cadet Aaron Taylor, 18, from Steeple Claydon, near Bicester, died on Saturday following the accident the previous day.

His devastated foster parents, Ken and Anita Wiggins, spoke of their grief at losing someone who had been "loved by everyone".

Mrs Wiggins said she had treated the avid football fan, who was planning to join the army, like her own son.

She said: "He had a wonderful personality and was liked by so many people in the village. It is a terrible loss."

Aaron was hit by a delivery van as he walked with three friends along the southbound carriageway of the A41 at 1.30am on Good Friday.

The friends had been drinking in Bicester and were trying to hitchhike to the Family Farm Services on the A34 near Weston-on-the-Green, to see a friend who worked there.

Aaron was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital at Oxford in a critical condition and put on a life support machine, but died on Saturday morning.

One of Aaron's natural parents, who lives at Andover in Hampshire, visited his bedside before he died. A post-mortem was due to be carried out today .

Pc Graham Tabersham said the driver of the van had not stopped at the time, but later reported the incident on a mobile phone. He was interviewed but later released without charge.

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