A CALL has been made for improvements to signposting at a junction in the region where a motorcyclist died in a collision.

An inquest was told on Tuesday that the junction might not have been immediately obvious to 28-year-old Neil James Hughes as he rode his Yamaha 600 along the B6271 from Scorton to Northallerton, North Yorkshire, last September.

A police investigator said Mr Hughes would have had only about four seconds in which to react when he saw a car which was about to turn into the junction ahead of him.

Mr Hughes had been to Croft racing circuit, near Darlington, with two friends and was leading them into Northallerton for a meal when his machine struck the car at the junction leading to Romanby, near the village of Yafforth.

The advanced cardiac technician trainee, from the Denes area of Darlington, was thrown off his machine and died from loss of blood and severe neck injuries.

Accident investigator PC Timothy Alderson said that after reconstructing the accident with a colleague he was satisfied that a rider could approach the junction within the speed limit and stop comfortably behind a waiting car. "He appears to have intended to continue along the road by trying to pass the Peugeot on the offside."

Coroner Michael Oakley said that, given the accident record, he would also take up the issue of signing and road marking with the highway authority.

He said: "It appears that at some point the car indicated but this could have been on the junction or before. We cannot say how long the indicator was on. It may be that Mr Hughes saw the car first and only later that it was indicating and turning right. It all happened at the last moment.