Onlookers reported seeing PC Allan Shaw, 33, of Ashton, "trying to catch up" with a group of other riders who had already passed through the busy junction in Bolton where the fatal crash happened.

The officer, being trained to escort VIP convoys, crashed into a parked lorry and died at the scene in July, 2006.
David Rutter, parked at traffic lights at the junction of Blackburn Road, Crompton Way and Moss Bank Way, told a Bolton inquest he saw a number of police motorbikes go past in "dribs and drabs".

He said: "Then I saw the policeman coming over the crest of the hill towards me. I expressed surprise to myself at the speed he was going.
"I thought if a little kiddie or a dog ran across the road there could be an accident. He was travelling faster than the others. I thought he was going significantly faster.

"I'm not a motorcyclist so it's difficult for me to judge the speed, but I said at the time that if he had been clocked at 100mph I wouldn't have argued – but it's very much a guess."

Mr Rutter said he looked out of his side window and had seen the bike in the air and the officer off his seat with his hands on the handlebars.

The inquest heard from a number of witnesses who had seen the convoy of bikes pass through the junction.
David Kay was standing on an island in the middle of the road when the first police biker arrived and told him: "Stop where you are. Don't move."

Other bikers then arrived with PC Shaw following some 30 seconds later.
Mr Kay said: "He's come to the junction and he's hit the camber. The back wheel was off the ground." He believed PC Shaw was going between 50 and 60 mph.

Stephen Hughes, an antiques dealer who was in a van at the junction, said: "I've lived on that road most of my life and I think it's a very bad camber."
(Proceeding)