A woman biker was killed days before her birthday after a lorry struck her on a busy slip road.

Flowers and cards have been left at the scene where Jo Hancock died after her Piaggio moped was hit by an arctic lorry on Friday afternoon.

In a tribute to her daughter, her mother wrote: "Darling Jo, beloved daughter. I hope you know how much I admired you and respected you.

"I'm so glad to have spent 36 years with you, love mummy."

Police were called at 2.10pm to the A40 slip road for Perivale Westbound near the BP garage.

The woman from South Tottenham was taken by ambulance to a London hospital where she was pronounced dead an hour later.

One passer-by said he heard a lorry was overtaking another vehicle on the slip road, which was thought to be turning into the BP garage, and hit the biker as he did not see her coming on to the road.

Mike Cotton, manager of the Myllet Arms, said there are always accidents on the A40 but it was tragic to hear of one only a few yards away.

The 32-year-old said: "We could see the police cordoned the road off all the way to the slip way for a few hours.

"The police came in to ask for CCTV and said it didn't look good.

"No-one really knows what happened but we lost a lot of customers at that time as the whole slip way was closed and there were a lot of police here."

Paul Hyde, manager at Starvin Marvin's cafe on Central Parade, said: "I didn't see the accident but I saw the two ambulances - they got there very quickly. The road was closed until about 30 minutes later."

Police are now appealing for witnesses and anyone with information should call the Alperton Collision Investigation Unit on 020 8998 5319.