A Police traffic officer yesterday urged Government to cut down a cedar tree and widen the road at an accident blackspot which claimed the lives of two youths last year.

P.c. Jerome Simons made the recommendation at in inquest into the deaths of Damon Spencer, 19, and Graham Steede, 20, who were killed last July after their motorcycle crashed at high speed into the tree on Spanish Point Road, near Clarence Dale Drive, Pembroke.

P.c. Simons said: "I would suggest Works and Engineering take a long hard look at this area with a view to widening the road and erecting traffic signs warning motorists where there have been a number of very serious accidents.

"The Bermuda cedar tree should also be removed from the sidewalk. No cedar tree in the world should come before the lives of our Bermudian public.'' But Magistrate Edward King hit back: "I don't buy into this business of the tree because if they missed the tree they would have struck the wall behind.

We would have to move a lot of walls.'' Mr. King ruled that the friends died an accidental death after hitting the tree at high speed around 4 a.m. on July 13.

He said the driver, Mr. Steede, who had almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, had contributed to the accident as his co-ordination would have been impaired. The pair were on the way home after a night out in Hamilton when they visited The Beach and Oasis before trying to get into Escape nightclub.

Mr. Steede, of Suffering Lane, St. George's, had 141 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood - the legal limit is 80 milligrammes in 100 millilitres.

Mr. Spencer, of Spanish Point Road, had 169 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

Mr. King ruled: "From the totality of the evidence, it is obvious that excessive speed coupled with the impairment of Steede to the extent he was beyond the legal limit caused the deaths of these two young men.'' Mr. Steede died of multiple fractures to his chest, while Mr. Spencer had extensive skull fractures. Ambulance staff tried to administer CPR at the scene, but both men were declared dead by the time they arrived at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

DEATHS OBITUARY OBT ACCIDENTS AC