A FATHER-OF-TWO was killed instantly when he fell into the path of an oncoming car, a coroner heard yesterday (Monday, March 29).

Just days before his 43rd birthday, avid cyclist Huw Jones was travelling home after an early morning bike ride on June 10, 2020, when he suddenly lost control, falling into a Fiat 500.

Mr Jones landed on his back in the village road before half a dozen witnesses rushed to resuscitate and help him.

Paramedics arrived just 10 minutes later before an air ambulance doctor arrived on Thames Street, Sonning, Berkshire, taking over the emergency treatment.

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After 39 minutes of CPR, he was pronounced dead at 8.15am.

Pathologist Dr Robert Chapman confirmed yesterday that Mr Jones had died from chest injuries, having suffered a traumatic rupture of the aorta.

At the inquest into his tragic death, his wife, Julia Jones, sobbed as she heard the intimate details of what happened just seconds before the crash.

Charlotte Baker was driving her daily route to work when Mr Jones, from Wokingham, collided with her car.

Reading Chronicle: Thames Street, Sonning

In a statement, she said: "I saw the rider suddenly starting to wobble, I had not seen anything to cause him to become unsettled.

"He did not have to swerve, he just started wobbling from left to right.

"Then the bike tilted towards my car, he came straight at me.

"I had started to brake but there was no time to react, he fell straight in front of my car, hitting into the driver's side headlights.

"He collided like he was in the act of falling. After hitting my car, he fell into the road in front of me, lying in the middle of the road."

According to the BBC, his inquest at Reading Town Hall heard a pothole was found at the crash scene.

Assistant Berkshire coroner Alison McCormick heard that Ms Baker was travelling at 17mph.

She said that she could not rule that Mr Jones had wobbled after hitting a pothole, his bike chain had fallen off before the accident or that he had been distracted.

Sitting in the inquest devastated wife Julia, said: "He was going for a ride before work.

"He would have been on his way home, it was a route he often rode, he was familiar with it.

"He was a keen cyclist all his life.

"He went out all the time.

"He was riding his racing bike that he used for triathlons and time trials. He knew that bike very well."

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Family friend Victoria Smith set up a fundraising page to help Julia and her six-year-old daughter Zoe and son Ben, aged four years, following the tragedy.

The page has raised more than £26,000 in the hope the heartbroken family could move to New Zealand to be with Julia’s family.

Concluding a verdict of death from road traffic collision, the coroner said: "You have been really really brave, it just shows what a special person Huw was.

"It does seem to me that Huw did not suffer and I think that is a mercy in a tragic event like this.

"He died doing something that he really loved and was very good at."