NEIGHBOURING communities are mourning two best friends who died together in a motorbike accident at the weekend.

Craig Poulter, 29, and Jonathan Whitfield, 30, were on Mr Poulter’s Yamaha bike when it hit a parked car near Sedgefield, County Durham, just before 4am on Saturday.

Friends yesterday described the pair as inseparable and “two of the nicest lads you could meet”.

Mr Poulter is from The Green, Bishop Middleham, County Durham, while Mr Whitfield lived with his parents a few miles away in Heatherdene Road, Fishburn.

Their families could not speak about the tragedy yesterday.

A friend of both men said: “They were always together.

You never saw one without the other.

“They would both do anything for anybody. They were the nicest blokes you could meet.”

Another friend who used to work with Mr Whitfield in Spennymoor said: “They were both great lads and so full of life.

“Why is it that these things happen to the good ones?”

Police said yesterday they could not explain how the accident happened and appealed for witnesses to help them.

The accident woke people in Winterton Cottages, inside a 40mph limit on the B1278 Salter’s Lane, just outside Sedgefield, when the motorbike struck a Ford Focus parked outside one of the houses.

One resident said: “Occasionally, cars are parked sticking a few inches out into the road, but the visibility along here is fairly good and drivers have plenty of opportunity to see them and move over. It is the first time I have heard of an accident along here.

“An off-road car park with 12 spaces was built for us a couple of years ago, but there have been problems with vandalism there, so some of the residents still park by the road.

“There’s not enough spaces for all the cars in the row either, so some people have to park by the road.”

Sedgefield councillor John Robinson said: “This is a terrible tragedy which has cost two young men’s lives. Our thoughts and sympathies are with both their families.”

Councillor Lucy Hovvels, from Trimdon Grange, near Fishburn, said: “The whole community is devastated. The Whitfields are a local family.

“Two lives have been taken, and this sort of thing affects a lot of people and continues to do so for a long time.

“Our hearts go out to everyone involved.”

Police have appealed for witnesses to call 0191-375-2159.