A YORK man suffered fatal injuries in a motorbike accident after taking a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, an inquest heard.

Mark Knights, 22, of Burdyke Avenue, Clifton, had consumed high levels of ecstasy along with cocaine, cannabis and whisky before stealing a motorbike and taking it on a ride around the city in the early hours of October 11 last year.

He was accompanied by five friends in a white Vauxhall Cavalier, one of whom watched in horror through the rear windscreen of the car as Mr Knights crashed into the central reservation of the A19 opposite Rawcliffe Park and Ride at about 4am.

The inquest, held yesterday at Sentinel House, York, heard that his friends returned to the scene and found Mr Knights unconscious and bleeding from the mouth.

They pulled him into the back of the car and drove him straight to York District Hospital where he died soon afterwards from a ruptured spleen and kidney, according to medical evidence.

Daniel Coombs, 18, of Burton Green, Clifton, who was in the car, said: "Mark pulled up on the side of Shipton Road and we had a talk to him and told him to be careful.

"Then we were going down Shipton Road and we could see him in the headlights.

"It was dark and raining and I saw him coming down and hit the railings.

"I could see the headlights."

He went on to say: "I reckon he would have been going a fair speed. He was going pretty fast when we were driving about you see."

Traffic Constable Timothy Alderson, from North Yorkshire accident investigation unit, examined the accident scene.

He said that markings suggested that Mr Knights was in the wrong lane to head into the city centre and had driven straight into the reservation railings, braking hard just seconds before impact.

He said that the impact was so great that the Kawasaki motorbike was almost split in two.

He said: "The bike was eight years old and had been in good mechanical repair.

"There were no faults, no defects that are likely to have caused or contributed to this accident."

Coroner for York, Donald Coverdale said recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He said: "The quantity of certain drugs within Mr Knights' body would have had a significant effect on his ability to control a motor vehicle."

He went on to say: "This accident happened on Shipton Road in York when Mr Knights was riding a motorcycle which evidently he had stolen that day.

"It's possible that his unfamiliarity with the controls may have led him into difficulties when riding it."

Mr Coverdale said that the fact that Mr Knights was taken to hospital by car, rather than by ambulance, had had no effect on the outcome of the tragedy.

Updated: 08:12 Friday, October 26, 2001