A YOUNG father killed in a crash last summer while riding his new motorbike may have been travelling at double the speed limit in the moments before the collision.

Fabio Da Paixao, who was 30, had overtaken a string of cars on a 30 mile per hour stretch of the A350 through Spetisbury before colliding with a Honda Civic as its driver, Carly Tempany, undertook a three point turn in the carriageway.

Mr Da Paixao was riding a black and red Suzuki 1000c motorcycle, which he had bought two days before the crash on Sunday, July 24.

During an inquest held in Bournemouth yesterday, witness Elaine Stanton, who was overtaken by Mr Da Paixao as she drove her Freelander, said the motorcycle “came past very fast”.

“I thought he was doing 60 miles per hour,” she said.

Mr Da Paixao, a keen motorcyclist and director of Poole-based Good Value Cars Ltd, had been out biking with friend and business partner Jamie Ward.

In a statement given to police, Mr Ward said Mr Da Paixao “liked to drive fast”, and would sometimes drive “stupidly fast”.

On the day of the fatal collision, Mr Da Paixao had reached speeds of up to 140mph, it was heard.

However, Mr Ward said there was “no silliness or weaving”.

Neither Mr Ward nor Mrs Stanton remembered seeing the Civic in the carriageway before it was hit by the Suzuki and Mr Da Paixao was not seen to brake or swerve away from the vehicle by either witness.

Mr Ward said: “He didn’t see it.”

Miss Tempany said she checked both directions before beginning the three point turn.

She didn’t see or hear the motorcycle until the moment of impact, it was heard during the inquest.

Asked by coroner Rachael Griffin if she’d been listening to loud music when she got into the Civic, Miss Tempany said the volume had been “average”.

Sergeant Mark Farrow of Dorset Police said Mr Da Paixao had been travelling at least one-and-a-half times the speed limit.

“Had the motorcycle been travelling within the speed limit, this collision would not have occurred,” he said.

Following the crash, Mr Da Paixao, who lived in Poole, was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital with serious head injuries and rib fractures.

He died the following day.

Recording a verdict that Mr Da Paixao died as the consequence of a road traffic collision, Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin said: “He was a young man who had a passion for motorbikes.

“It is clear he also had a passion for speed and driving those motorbikes at speed sometimes.”