Scaffolder Michael Miller died when he crashed his motorbike into a van after driving the wrong way round a roundabout.

The divorced 38-year-old, of Queensway, Didcot, braked hard and tried to avoid the Peugeot 305 van but he fell on to it and suffered multiple injuries.

David Wadsworth, of White Road, East Hendred, told an Oxford inquest yesterday that he was following the yellow and purple Honda Fireblade along Grenoble Road, Littlemore, up to the roundabout with Oxford Science Park.

He said: "I expected him to go round the roundabout but he just disappeared.

"I was surprised because he had appeared to have gone the wrong way round the roundabout." Mechanical engineer John O'Shea, of Appleford Road, Sutton Courtenay, had just left the science park where he had been working when he came face to face with the bike.

He said: "There was just a bike there coming from the opposite direction.

"I was doing about 15mph and had no time to react before the collision."

Consultant pathologist Dr Kevin Hollowood, who carried out a post-mortem examination at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, told the hearing that Mr Miller died of multiple injuries.

No alcohol was found in his system.

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He said: "There's nothing to suggest why he attempted to negotiate the roundabout in the wrong direction."

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