Speeding and tiredness were factors in the death of a car lover and businessman from Melksham who crashed his car into a tree near Beanacre.

An inquest, held in Salisbury today, heard how Dean Gosley, 27, was driving home to Melksham after a night out with friends in Chippenham when he lost control of his Mercedes convertible on a right hand bend on the A350, in the early hours of Saturday, September 6.

Mr Gosley, who owned and ran Audio Visual Solutions in Woodpecker Mews, Chippenham, oversteered on a right hand band and in correcting the mistake lost control, hit a verge and crashed into a tree.

He was not wearing a seatbelt at the time, but a police investigation showed the severity of the crash meant he would not have survived even if he had been.

A post mortem examination showed Mr Gosley died from a serious internal head injury at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, three days after the accident.

Best friend and business partner Dan Tucker, of Westbury Terrace, Chippenham, said Mr Gosley was a hard worker and a popular person who had many friends.

He told the inquest he had finished work at 4pm on Friday, September 5, but Mr Gosley had left to deal with another job. The pair met up again in Chippenham about 8pm or 9pm, for a night out with friends.

Later in the evening, Mr Gosley took a female friend home before returning to town to pick up Mr Tucker, taking him home about 3am. After dropping him off, Mr Gosley headed back towards Melksham.

Motorist Hugh Nokes described seeing Mr Gosley's car overtake him on the approach to the Lackham roundabout before speeding off into the distance. He came across the crash scene minutes later.

An investigation was launched by the Northern Roads Policing Unit.

PC Dean Hall, reading out a statement of the findings, said police were called to the crash scene at 3.45am.

He said an examination of skid marks on the road showed Mr Gosley had been speeding when he lost control.

"The collision occured because of excessive speed and a loss of control. The collision was avoidable," he said.

A toxicology report showed Mr Gosley had a tiny amount of cannabis in his system, but not enough to have affected his driving.

Coroner David Ridley said: "From what I have been told today, it seems a combination of speed and fatigue caused him to lose control of his vehicle which caused him to collide with a tree."

Verdict: accident