Coroner suggests pheasant crossing road could have caused man, 27, to crash in fatal motorcycle accident

A coroner has suggested a pheasant crossing the road may have caused a young man to lose control of his motorbike and die in a tragic crash.
Ashley Greatorex.Ashley Greatorex.
Ashley Greatorex.

Ashley Greatorex passed away in Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital following the collision on Cawthorne Road, Barnsley, on May 2 last year.

Sheffield Coroner’s Court heard the 27-year-old was riding his Kawasaki motorbike at around midday when he lost control, hit a curb and struck a tree.

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Robert Crispin, a forensic collision investigator, told Wednesday’s inquest there were no defects with the motorbike or the road surface.

He said: “It appears the rider failed to negotiate a right-hand bend for what appears to be an unknown reason.

“I can’t say he was going too fast – there’s absolutely no evidence for that.

“It certainly didn’t strike me as a high-speed collision, however.”

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Mr Greatorex’s father Andrew described his son as someone who was ‘very jumpy’ and ‘flinched at almost anything’.

“We think something scared him on the road that day but we just don’t know,” he added.

Coroner Katy Dickinson said: “You do get a lot of pheasants crossing that road.

“There could have been something crossing that caught his eye.

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“The truth is, we don’t know what caused him to tragically lose control of his bike.

“This was a terrible accident.”

She concluded that Mr Greatorex, a sales executive who lived in Hazelwood, Barnsley, died as a result of a road traffic collision

Addressing Mr Greatorex’s family in court, Mrs Dickinson said: “I can see how heart-broken you are.

“I’m so very sorry you lost Ashley.”

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