NOVICE motorcyclist Scott Blake died as a result of a road traffic collision, a coroner has ruled, after hearing how he suffered severe head injuries when he collided with an oncoming car near Calne.

Scott Adam Blake, 18, of Newcroft Road, Calne, died on August 8 last year, two days after the crash on the A3102 in Hilmarton. After Mr Blake’s 125cc bike hit the car, he was thrown under the van he had been following.

On Tuesday Wiltshire Coroner’s Court sitting in Salisbury heard how Mr Blake, who had only passed his bike test a month earlier, had been travelling along the A3102 from Lyneham behind a white van being driven by Joseph Frankham. Mr Frankham had slowed down because of two cyclists on the road in front of him, and Mr Blake reacted by swerving into the opposite lane, before crashing into a car being driven by Helen Pengelly.

Assistant coroner Claire Balysz read a statement from Mrs Pengelly which said: “I didn’t become aware of the bike until it came into my lane.

“I didn’t have time to stop but I hit my brakes. I collided with the bike and the driver went on top of my car.”

Mr Blake was then thrown into the van, being driven by Mr Frankham, and had his legs trapped underneath it.

Mr Frankham gave evidence, saying: “I was driving from my mum’s in Melksham on my way to my girlfriend’s house in Swindon.

“I can remember seeing the motorbike behind me in my side mirror on a bend in the road.

“I started slowing for two cyclists in front of me. The next thing I know I was hit by the motorbike. I panicked, and braked.”

When asked if he remembered what speed he was travelling at, Mr Frankham, who said he had been traumatised by the accident, said he was driving at 50 or 60 mph and that he was keeping a safe distance from the cyclists in front.

Police Sergeant Peter Trutch, who investigated the collision, told the court Mr Blake had passed his compulsory bike training just one month before the accident occurred and that it was possible he failed to react in time to the van slowing for the cyclists.

Assistant coroner Mrs Balysz said: “Scott Adam Blake died of a traumatic head injury he sustained after a collision, and then died two days later in Southmead Hospital, Bristol. It is my conclusion that he died of a road traffic collision.”