Van driver 'pulled into biker's path'

A VAN driver pulled out into the path of a motorcyclist on the A16 at North Thoresby, an inquest heard.

Married father-of-three Lea Anthony Holden, a joint director of Quality Sheet Metal (Grimsby) Ltd, died instantly in the crash on May 2, – just days before his 40th birthday.

A post mortem examination revealed he died from multiple injuries in the crash, which happened shortly before 1pm.

Deputy Louth district coroner Maureen Cassey recorded a verdict of accidental death following the hearing at Horncastle Register Office.

Lea's brother, Dean Holden, told the inquest they were taking Lea's Kawasaki 900cc motorcycle to a garage for its MOT. He set off minutes ahead of his brother from his home in Ludborough Road, North Thoresby.

At the North Thoresby crossroads, Vauxhall Morano van driver Ian Jones (47), of Gate House, Haugh, near Alford, waited to turn right from the C638 onto the A16 towards Louth.

He was completing a nine-hour working day with Micronclean of Louth, delivering garments.

He said: "I checked that no one was coming."

When cross-examined by the deputy coroner, he said: "I have gone over it a million times in my head from when I stopped, to the accident. From the point of being on the junction and pulling out was between four and a half and five seconds."

He told the inquest the first moment he saw the motorcyclist was when it was between 25 and 30 yards to his right.

He said he could not calculate the speed of the motorcycle.

Crash investigator Sgt Jonathan Gowler said the motorcycle was being driven within the 50mph speed limit, adding that the van driver would have had sight of the motorcyclist 175 metres away as the rider travelled north towards Grimsby.

He said the van would have taken between one and two seconds to emerge from the junction, not four or five seconds.

He said: "The Kawasaki would have been in his view when he moved off. The Vauxhall was completely blocking the Kawasaki's lane."

In court

It was revealed after the inquest Ian Jones faces charges of careless driving and will appear at Skegness Magistrates' Court on a date to be fixed.