Prayers were offered at churches across the North-East yesterday for a clergyman biker who was killed in a road crash.

The Reverend Ian Currie was returning home to Teesside from a conference in Derbyshire when the accident happened.

Police said he lost control of his black Honda motorcycle and collided with a Toyota car on the B1363 between York and Helmsley.

Mr Currie, 56, was assistant minister at St Barnabas Church, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.

Friend and colleague Martin Sheppard, director of communications for the Diocese of York, said: "Ian was a committed family man and a Christian, for whom real life and faith were one and the same.

"Ian's Christian faith was all about God and all about the people around him. There was no nonsense about him. What you saw was what you got."

The Rev Eric Wilson, vicar at St Barnabas, said yesterday: "We are praying for his family in particular and giving thanks for his life and ministry.''

Mr Currie, who leaves a widow, Sheila, and sons James, 28, and Paul, 25, is the ninth motorcyclist to have been killed on roads in North Yorkshire this year. The accident happened last Thursday.

Meanwhile, police are appealing for witnesses to two fatal road accidents in County Durham.

David Kershaw died when his Kawasaki 1100cc motorbike collided with a Citreon Xsara Picasso on a country road in Teesdale.

The 54-year-old had been travelling north along the B6282 at Woodland, near Barnard Castle, when the accident happened at 5.25pm on Saturday.

Mr Kershaw, of Salisbury Place, Bishop Auckland, was certified dead at the scene by a local doctor.

The driver of the Citreon, a 52-year-old man from Marton, near Middlesbrough, suffered an arm injury in the accident.

Police are urging the driver of a maroon car, which was overtaken by the motorcycle moments before the accident, to get in touch.

Investigators are also appealing for witnesses to an accident on the A177, near Sedgefield, which left one man dead and three with serious multiple injuries.

A black Lexus saloon and a green Audi coupe, both travelling south towards Stockton, collided, left the road and crashed into trees.

The four occupants of the Lexus were thrown from the vehicle, which broke up on impact.

Passenger Leslie Clark, 54, of Trimdon Avenue, Acklam, Middlesbrough, died in the operating theatre at Middlesbrough General Hospital.

The driver, a 34-year-old man from Wolviston, near Hartlepool, was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton.

Two other men - a 30-year-old and a 29-year-old, both from Ingleby Barwick, Teesside - are in Middlesbrough General Hospital.

The Audi driver, a 29-year-old from Sedgefield, was not hurt in the crash, which closed the road from 2.20pm until 8.40pm.

Witnesses to either of the County Durham accidents are asked to call police, on 0191-386 4929.