AN EXPERIENCED Hampshire motorcyclist died following a two-vehicle crash in France, an inquest heard.

Michael Curtis from Ringwood was travelling in Brittany when he hit a turning car and was thrown into the air, Winchester Coroner’s Court heard.

Mr Curtis, of Morant Road, was attempting to overtake two vehicles on the junction of D926 and D37 when the incident occurred on June 8 last year, and later died at the scene.

Mr Curtis’s daughter, Trudy Curtis, said: “Since he retired at 55, his main holidays have been either driving his motorbike or his camper van.

“He really knew his way around the French roads.

“He was a very experienced driver and had never had any accidents, to my knowledge.

“His exact rule was ‘cars don’t look behind them to see if a motorcycle is coming’.”

The court heard the 67-year-old had a history of heart disease and had a pacemaker fitted in 2016.

Dr Sanjay Jogai of Southampton General Hospital said Mr Curtis suffered no traumatic injury to the structure of the heart in the incident, and that he thought it was likely that the impact of the collision and his health background had caused a sudden cardiac arrest.

In a statement read in court, witness Claude Depond said: “I said to myself ‘I will be surprised if he gets past’.”

Assistant coroner Sarah Whitby said that it was unclear whether the turning vehicle was indicating but that Mr Curtis would have been unable to see regardless as the second vehicle behind was larger, and that he was unlikely to have been travelling excessively fast.

She added that the cause of death was cardiac arrest from a road traffic collision.

She recorded a verdict of accidental death.