A young motorcyclist died after suffering a severe brain injury during a head-on collision with a car.
An inquest heard Shane Gaskin was seriously injured when he attempted to overtake a black Land Rover Defender on Dentgate Lane, between Copley and Barnard Castle in County Durham.
He attempted the manoeuvre on a hill as a blue Nissan X Trail was travelling in the opposite direction, the court was told.
In a statement read out to Crook Coroners’ Court, the driver of the Nissan, Christopher Close, said: “The collision occurred between my vehicle and what I believed to be a motorbike immediately on seeing its head light.
“I checked my daughter for injuries. There was smoke coming from my vehicle so we needed to get out for our safety.
“The Land Rover driver came walking towards me. I asked if he had seen a motorbike he said he had, then we had a conversation about him overtaking on the brow of the hill. We started looking for the rider while we attempted to call emergency services.”
After finding Shane, the driver of the Land Rover, Dominic Hunter, attempted CPR with a bystander to try to save him while they waited for the paramedics to arrive.
The accident happened at 5.40pm on November 11 and Shane was taken to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
Shane died the following day with his mum present. The court heard doctors decided to stop treatment after concluding he was “very unlikely” to survive.
Police Constable Jason Coverdale, who investigated the crash, told the inquest that Shane’s badly-damaged motorbike was sent about ten metres backwards, and that his helmet came off on impact.
Following a post-mortem examination the medical cause of Shane’s death was given as a ‘brain injury caused by a traumatic cardiac arrest’.
Jeremy Chipperfield, senior assistant coroner for County Durham and Darlington, concluded that Shane died due to a road traffic collision. He said: “On November 11, 2024 at about 5.40pm Shane was riding his motorcycle northbound on Dentgate Lane north of Pennyhill Farm.
“When approaching the blind summit of the hill he attempted to overtake another vehicle, that being the one driven by Mr Hunter, he collided head on with a vehicle travelling southbound, that being the X Trail driven by Mr Close, which had been obscured from his view by the effect of the gradient of the road.”
He added: “I am very sorry for your loss. It must be so hard to sit here and hear about these things read out so clinically. Thank you for your dignity and for being here as well.”
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View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/inquest-motorcyclist-killed-county-durham-31109931
