A 28-YEAR-OLD motorbike rider who died after colliding with a horse box on the A48 near Westbury-on-Severn had just survived Hurricane Irma.
Minsterworth man Jamie Thomas, also known as Jamie Jeffery, died near the Old Rectory at around midday on Sunday (September 24), just seven days after returning from hurricane-hit Florida.
The cable puller, who worked at AA Utilities Specialists in Yorkley, had posted videos of the hurricane on his Facebook page and described boarding up the house where he was staying in Kissimmee.
Friends laid flowers beside the crash site, which councillors claim is an accident blackspot and where they have called for lower speed limits.
Figures from Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership show there have been 13 serious injury accidents and 24 slight injury accidents since 2012 on the same stretch of road.
Adrian Davies, of AA Utilities Specialists, described him as hard worker and "a lovely lad" who would be sadly missed.
Rina Alicia, a friend of Jamie’s in Florida who said goodbye to him the week before, posted "My heart is torn," after receiving the news of his death 3,000 miles away while attending church.
The driver of the horsebox, a 54-year-old woman from Dursley, was uninjured in the head-on crash, which closed the road for several hours.
Police have urged any witnesses who have not yet come forward to call 101 quoting incident number 224 of 24 September 2017.