A BEWDLEY motorcyclist who died following a head-on collision with a car was in "the wrong place at the wrong time", an inquest heard.

Dean Peplow, 38, of Load Street, was involved in the accident with a Volvo being driven by Martin Lewis, on the A456 at Little Hereford on a Sunday afternoon in June last year.

Mr Lewis was driving back to his home in Bircher in North Herefordshire from Birming-ham International Airport following a holiday.

"I was driving around a bend when, suddenly, there was a motorbike coming towards me on the wrong side of the road," he told the Hereford inquest. "There was nothing I could do."

Mr Peplow was taken by Air Ambulance to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, where he died later the same day.

PC David Sidley, who investigated the accident, said the motorcycle involved was a 1,000cc Honda Fireblaze sports bike.

He described the bike as "a very powerful machine" that was a metre on the wrong side of the road when the accident happened.

PC Sidley told the inquest the closing speed of the accident was such that the driver would only have had a split second to react and there was nothing he could do.

Sheryl Beasley, the girlfriend of the dead man, said in a statement he was an experienced and competent rider.

"It was just an accident - two people in the wrong place at the wrong time," she added.

Pathologist, Dr Mark Hayes, said the rider had received very series injures, resulting in a brain haemorrhage and fractures to the pelvis and spine, which caused his death.

There was no alcohol in his blood but traces of cocaine were found at low levels but this did not have any involvement in the accident. Sheryl Beasley told the inquest that her partner had used the drug two days before the accident.

The coroner, David Halpern, recorded a verdict of accidental death.