A 29-year-old biker was killed yesterday after being thrown from his motorcycle on the A429 towards Malmesbury.

The man, from the Maidenhead area, in Berkshire, came off on the left hand side of the road near the junction with Grange Lane just north of Corston, at around 5am.

He was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was taken to the mortuary at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital.

The road was closed until 11.45am, causing tailbacks along the M4, while police conducted an investigation and removed debris.

PC Chris Penny from the Roads Policing Unit is leading the investigation.

He said: “At around 5.12am a black and orange Honda 600cc motorbike came off the road on the nearside.

“The rider was thrown from the vehicle and received fatal injuries. We have spoken to witnesses at the scene and are keen to hear from anyone else.”

He said the cause of the crash is unknown but road conditions were damp at the time of the incident.

The death comes 16 months after charity fundraiser Mary Howard died in a crash further down the A429 near Hullavington.

Wiltshire councillor for Malmesbury Without, Bernard Ingham, said the road, which has a 60mph speed limit between Corston and Malmesbury, is treacherous.

He said: “It can be pretty dicey coming out of the Grange Lane junction because traffic comes up pretty fast from the south.

“The problem is the road isn’t wide enough.

“If you have two lorries passing each other you can hardly slip a piece of paper between them.

“If that happens when a cyclist is there then they would be taken out.”