A GROUP of men have been told they behaved like morons during a quad bike pub crawl across the Black Mountains that left one dead and another seriously injured.

Wayne Evans was killed near Hay-on-Wye and Martin Gibbons fractured his skull near Longtown after both men drank eight pints of beer in border country bars last October, an inquest heard.

The inquest, at Brecon Combined Courts last Wednesday, was told the two friends started their all-day drinking session at the Queen's Head Inn at Cwmyoy shortly before lunchtime.

Mr Gibbons said the pair waited at the pub for Keith and Martin Jones before the four men headed across the mountains on their quad bikes, stopping at the Cornewall Arms in Clodock, the Carpenters Arms in Walterstone, and the Temple Bar Inn at Ewyas Harold along the way.

When Mr Gibbons came off his bike shortly after leaving Ewyas Harold at 6.30pm, he was fortuitously met by a passing uncle. Mr Gibbons, of Velindre, near Glasbury, said his three friends left him with his uncle and headed home.

The inquest heard that the three men then stopped at the Crown Inn near Pandy - although in answer to a question from Powys coroner Geraint Williams the Jones brothers denied drinking there. They all then made their way home across the Black Mountains.

It was on this journey that Mr Evans, a 35-year-old mechanic from Three Cocks, died while driving alone.

His Honda Big Red 350cc quad bike hit a grass verge on an unclassified road in Velindre and overturned.

James Rafferty, a passer-by, found the father-of-two lying in the road with a deep gash to his head. A paramedic soon arrived and pronounced Mr Evans dead at 7.30pm.

Pathologist Dr Geraint Evans said Mr Evans died from head and spinal injuries sustained in falling from his quad bike.

The Abergavenny doctor said Mr Evans had 264 miligrammes of alcohol per 100 mililitres of blood when he died. This figure, the coroner said, was more than three times the legal limit to drive.

Brian Reece, a forensic vehicle examiner, said Mr Evans may have survived had he worn a helmet. He added that the quad bike carried a warning on its tyres that it should not be used on public roads.

Mr Gibbons, who fractured his skull, his sternum, his right arm in three places and lost 40% of his hearing in his accident, told the coroner he and Mr Evans had been driving relatively fast and were hazy after consuming a substantial amount of alcohol on October 29.

But he said: "Alcohol affects people differently and some people are all over the place after one pint. Eight pints is a lot but we felt safe with ourselves."

The Jones brothers, both from farms in Tregoyd, told the inquest they had not drank such large quantities, saying they had "two or three" shandies throughout the day.

And Keith Jones said the reason he refused to give a police statement almost three months after the accident was not to cover up any accusations of drink-driving, but because he was still in shock at the loss of his close friend.

But the coroner told the Jones brothers their claims contrasted with evidence received from a regular at the Temple Inn and said he could not accept that they had drunk only a couple of shandies.

"These two men were equally drunk and it is fortunate that they too were not hurt or killed," he told the inquest.

Mr Williams then criticised Mr Gibbons before recording that Mr Evans' death was accidental.

"For Mr Gibbons to tell me they were driving well and safely after drinking eight pints is an outrageous and fundamentally stupid thing to say," he said.

"This can only be described as an organised pub crawl on quad bikes.

"Goodness knows what would have happened if there had been a pedestrian or motorist in the vicinity of these young men behaving like morons.

"This is a case of drunken men on quad bikes on the public highway and it is appalling - you should be ashamed of yourselves."