THE driver of a car involved in a collision which caused the death of a Hampshire motorcyclist told an inquest the bike "came out of nowhere".

Stephen Good, 41, died after suffering serious head injuries and a fractured skull when his bike collided with a Toyota car travelling along the B3081 between Verwood and Ringwood.

The driver of the Toyota had been travelling out of Verwood and was taking a right turn to park his car when Mr Good, a father of three from Ringwood, was driving in the opposite direction on December 10 last year at about 8am.

Mr Good died at Bournemouth Royal Hospital shortly after the crash.

Following the accident, Michael Brown, the 66-year-old driver of the Toyota from Verwood, was charged with careless driving.

In December last year, Mr Brown pleaded guilty to the charge before New Forest magistrates at Lyndhurst. He was disqualified from driving for nine months and fined £750.

Mr Brown, who had been on his way to take his dog for a walk with his wife, told the inquest he had not seen the motorbike coming.

He said: "I did not see it. It seemed to come from nowhere."

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Southampton coroner Keith Wiseman said: "The collision occurred, as so many of these sad events do, in an absolute split second moment of time.

"There was no indication that Mr Brown was driving his car in anything other than a wholly appropriate fashion in an area he knew before a moment of what I fear was a fatal judgement as to where Mr Good was."

Mr Wiseman told the court there had been many examples of incidents where bikes with single headlights had not been visible to drivers.

Paying tribute to Mr Good, his sister Vanessa Bomphrey said: "He was a very popular member of the community. Words cannot express what the loss of someone like Steve does to a family. He was very much-loved."