THE helmet of Rednal motorcyclist Clive Anderson provided him with “no protection” as he was thrown 20 yards across the A38 motorway to his death, an inquest has found.

Mr Anderson was 57 years old when he suffered fatal head injuries from crashing his Honda Fireblade into the central barrier of the dual carriageway near Rubery on August 29 last year.

His son Michael paid tribute to him shortly after his death, describing him as a caring father and best friend with a love for motorbikes.

An inquest was launched into the cause of his death on September 13, after a 52-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and released on bail.

The Crown Prosecution Service later decided to take no further action against him.

Susan Driver, who appeared as a witness at Worcestershire Coroner’s Court on January 11, described hearing a loud ‘vrum’ while driving towards Rubery on the A38 on August 29, as a Honda Civic overtook her car and undertook a nearby ambulance at speed shortly before the crash.

She said: “I just thought it was going really fast and just remember thinking ‘slow down you idiot, you’re going to kill somebody’.”

Another witness, Gareth Davis, recalled wondering whether the motorcyclist had been racing the driver of the Honda Civic, having last seen the motorbike move into the same right hand lane.

Both witnesses had pulled over at the scene following the crash, along with ambulance driver Rebecca Green, who told the court how she had started CPR on Mr Anderson, who had been thrown 20 yards from his bike into the central reservation, despite being almost certain he was dead.

Miss Green stayed with Mr Anderson’s body until paramedics arrived and pronounced him dead at the scene.

Brian Wilson, the driver of the Honda Civic, told the court he had heard a bang and saw the motorbike spinning on the floor in his rear view mirror, but carried on driving.

Mr Wilson said: “I commented to my wife ‘oh my God, the bike’s just crashed’ and she said to me ‘should we stop?’ and my reaction was ‘well, it’s behind and I know there’s an ambulance behind and I don’t think it’s safe to stop on the carriageway’. I didn’t realise it was so severe to be honest.”

Collision investigator Police Constable Neil Taylor found during his investigation that there could not have been ‘any possible contact’ between Mr Wilson’s Honda Civic and Mr Anderson’s motorbike.

Instead, he concluded that Mr Anderson either misjudged the degree of the bend and followed a wider-than-intended path, or was travelling too fast for the turning, or both.

PC Taylor also examined Mr Anderson’s helmet, which had become detached from his head during the crash with the chin strap still buckled.

The helmet was described as cracked and deformed, consistent with heavy impact with one of the posts of the carriageway's central barrier.

A post-mortem and toxicological examination of Mr Anderson’s body found no evidence of any natural disease, and only a small level of alcohol in his blood, which, it was stated, may well have been produced after death.

In his conclusion, Coroner Reid ‘deplored’ Mr Wilson's actions in undertaking a vehicle on a dual carriageway, but said whether or not Mr Wilson had been driving over the speed limit did not affect his decision over Mr Anderson’s cause of death.

He said it was 'quite clear' from the evidence given that Mr Anderson had decided to follow Mr Wilson's car, but the reason for him doing so was unclear.

Coroner Reid thanked Mr Davis, Mrs Driver and Miss Green for pulling over at the scene, saying: “Your actions in stopping where you did in the middle of the road were a brave thing to do and undoubtedly a good thing to do in the circumstances. It seems that you were able to prevent other drivers behind you from coming across the motorcycle in the middle of the road, so thank you for doing that.”

Mr Anderson’s medical cause of death was found to be ‘multiple head injuries’, and the coroner’s overall verdict was that he ‘died as the result of a road traffic collision’.