Tim Hesketh, of Oakfield Avenue, Knutsford, lost control of his 1,000cc machine after he misjudged a bad bend in Ashley.

The father of three was thrown from his bike as it skidded into a concrete fence post in Mobberley Road.

Mr Hesketh was then struck by a grandmother's car.

At Thursday's hearing, Mr Hesketh's widow, Julie, wiped away tears as coroner John Hibbert returned a verdict of accidental death.

Mr Hesketh had owned the powerful Honda machine for five months.

On the day of his death, he told his wife he was just going out for a 'quick ride'.

But he never returned.

As he rounded a bend, he lost control of the machine and died from a fractured skull at the roadside despite efforts by other drivers to save him.

The accident on August 31 - the first anniversary of Princess Diana's death - left grandmother Nellie Barker badly shaken.

"It all happened so fast," she said in a statement to Warrington Coroner's Court.

"I don't really recall hearing or feeling a bang to my car."

Moments earlier Mr Hesketh, a sales director for Cable and Wireless, had overtaken Andrew Town's car.

"He just seemed to lose control," said Mr Town, of Brooklands, Sale.

"The next thing I saw was the motorbike on one side of the road and the rider on the other.

"But there was no movement from him."

Mr Town alerted the emergency services as other drivers, who had stopped at the scene, tried in vain to help.

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