A FORMER Hampshire police traffic officer died after the motorcycle he was riding collided with a van driven by a man with a provisional driving licence, an inquest heard.

Paul Fensom, 44, was riding along Portsdown Hill Road, Portchester on December 22 last year when the accident happened.

Mr Fensom was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, where he died from his injuries three weeks later.

The accident happened outside the Churchillian pub when Richard Silverston, a construction worker, was pulling out of Widley Walk.

Eyewitnesses told police the van turned right into their path crossing to the other side of the road into the path of the oncoming motorcyclist.

In an interview to police read by PC Karen Price Mr Silverston, 34, of Chaucer Avenue, admitted he held only a provisional licence.

He said: "I am 100 per cent sure there was nothing coming from that direction, absolutely nothing, I would swear on my daughter's life."

He admitted to drinking a pint of lager at the Churchillian pub before the accident. A roadside breath test cleared him of being unfit to drive.

A reconstruction of the collision by accident investigator Paul Douglass revealed Mr Fensom, of Conrad Gardens, Whiteley, would have to have been travelling at 150mph, a speed the Buell motorcycle was not capable of, to end up at the collision site if he had been obscured.

Deputy coroner Peter Latham, sitting at Portsmouth, recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mrs Fensom of East Court, Cosham, said: "He was the best of sons, as an accomplished motorcyclist I would have found it difficult to believe that he was to blame in any way for this.

Mr Silverston is awaiting a trial date on charges of careless driving in relation to the incident.