Rider died after skidding on pebbles

A SYDNEY man who died in a motorbike crash on Tasmania’s West Coast suffered fatal blunt force trauma to the chest, a coroner has found.

Robert James Potts had more than a decade’s experience riding motorbikes when he skidded on loose pebbles near Zeehan in October 2017, Coroner Simon Cooper said in his findings released this week.

Mr Cooper said Mr Potts and his wife Sally were visiting Tasmania for a holiday and for Mr Potts to compete in the Masters Games hockey tournament in Devonport.

Mr Potts, on his red 2011 Honda VFR 800, was riding out of Queenstown with three friends when they arrived at the Hydro Tasmania-owned Pieman Rd. The four men approached the Huskisson River Bridge via a sharp left turn and as he entered the curve, Mr Potts rode into a strip of loose pebbles in the centre of his lane, losing control of the bike.

Mr Potts was declared dead soon after paramedics arrived.

A crash investigator later said the 18 metres of loose pebbles, which seemed to have washed out of a culvert near the side of the road, was difficult to see due to mottled light.

A transport inspector found Mr Potts’ front tyre didn’t have sufficient depth tread.

Mr Cooper said according to a post mortem examination, Mr Potts’ left lung was pierced by his fractured ribs, causing “copious” internal bleeding.

Mr Cooper found several factors contributed to the crash, including the condition of the road – although it was flagged with a warning sign – along with potentially Mr Potts’ speed, the state of his front tyre, and because he didn’t see the hazard.