A coroner is demanding action to improve safety at a country crossroads near Carlisle where a biker was killed on Mother's Day.

Jeff Matthews died on March 26 when his Suzuki motorcycle collided with a car at the Great Orton crossroads, west of Carlisle.

An inquest into his death was held yesterday at Cumbria House in Botchergate.

Findings of a detailed police investigation into the fatal collision were revealed.

It discovered that the "close proximity and height of the hedgerows" along a stretch of the C1021 - the road from the A595 Orton Grange roundabout heading to Great Orton - formed a "tunneling effect" which meant Mr Matthews may have failed to identify the crossroads ahead.

"This obscures any sign of the crossroads," the collision report states.

The "tunneling effect" did not feature in a council highways study published just 10 months earlier which had been prompted by three crashes between 2012 and 2015.

Kevin Crawley, traffic management team leader at Cumbria County Council, told the inquest that funding is now available to implement the recommendations tabled in the May 2016 study but that negotiation with private landowners would be needed to resolve issues surrounding the height of hedgerows.

Area coroner Kally Cheema is now demanding further action and has decided that she must write a formal Report to Prevent Future Deaths to Cumbria County Council and the chief coroner for England and Wales.

Such reports can be made where a coroner believes that action should be taken to prevent future deaths.

Road markings were found be worn approaching the crossroads but a police collision investigator concluded that they would not have caused the crash.

When officers returned to the scene days later, on April 4, the markings had been repainted, the inquest heard.

Ms Cheema's formal conclusion was that Mr Matthews, a 28-year-old joiner from Jackson Road in Houghton, died as a result of a road traffic collision.

His motorcycle collided with a car being driven along the C2051 towards Carlisle by Susan Bell-D'Souza.

She was trapped inside with her husband Darren, the front-seat passenger, when the car overturned as a result of the crash.

Two off-duty nurses were among the first people at the scene who tried to help, the inquest was told.

Mr Matthews was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and moved to Cumbria with his family when he was about 12 years old.

He attended Beacon Hill School in Aspatria and later went to college to train as a joiner.

The inquest was told that he suffered renal failure as a teenager and went on to have a successful kidney transplant, after which he launched his own joinery business.

His partner Julie Harrison and mother Linda Matthews were among those who gave evidence at yesterday's hearing.

They described him as someone "who was all about fun" and "who put everyone first".