A MOTORCYCLIST died less than two days before he was due to go on a holiday.

Richard Lee, 28, of Miersfield, High Wycombe, was killed in a road accident on May 11, on John Hall Way, only yards from home, an inquest heard on Thursday.

Mr Lee was to go on holiday to Utah with his parents and brother but died as he returned home from Surbiton, where he worked as an electronics engineer.

Lorry driver Terence Hughes, from Bridgend, Glamorgan, told the inquest, held in High Wycombe, how Mr Lee had tried to overtake his vehicle, towing a trailer, as he travelled along John Hall Way from Handy Cross roundabout towards New Road.

Mr Hughes said: "I saw a motorcycle come on the outside behind me. I saw him braking hard and the motorcycle started swerving in both directions."

The motorcycle crashed into a traffic island and Mr Lee was flung off his Yamaha beneath the wheels of the trailer.

Pathologist Dr Yoon Chia said Mr Lee died from head injuries.

Mr Hughes, who had been working for plastics company Blowplast Ltd, of Hillbottom Road, Sands, when the accident occurred, was badly affected by the accident and has since quit working for the firm.

William Doyle, from Kettering, was a passenger in a van behind the lorry at the time of the crash.

He said: "The motorbike behind us overtook our van. I thought it was going to pull in behind the lorry but he continued to take the lorry."

Mr Doyle believed Mr Lee had not realised he was approaching a traffic island and had to brake hard to avoid it but failed.

Accident investigator PC Stephen Moffat agreed with Mr Doyle.

However Mr Lee's father, Christopher, said it was strange how his son had not realised the traffic island was there when he travelled on John Hall Way every day.

Coroner Richard Hulett said it was likely Mr Lee committed an error of misjudgement in thinking he had the space to overtake the lorry. He recorded a verdict of accidental death.