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Stroll ended in road death
A PENSIONER died as he crossed the road reading a newspaper, an inquest has heard.
Retired decorator William Goddard, 81, from Newington Green Road, was struck by a motorcycle at the corner of Clephane Road and St Paul’s Road in Canonbury in March.
The badly injured biker, Graham Dunn, was in a coma for about five hours after the accident and does not remember anything about the tragedy. He was returning from a night shift volunteering for the Samaritans when his bike hit Mr Goddard.
St Pancras coroner Dr Andrew Reid ruled last week that the death was a “tragic accident”.
Mr Goddard is survived by a wife, retired dressmaker Joan, 78, a stepson, Paul Graydon and a daughter, Maralyn Imbrogino.
Mr Graydon told the inquest his stepfather was struck just minutes from his home on a route he took every week. “He liked to go for a walk on Sunday mornings,” he said.
Witness Dawn Lindsey, a marketing executive, said Mr Goddard appeared not to see the motorbike.
“The gentleman was looking in my direction but I felt concerned he wasn’t going to look the other way, and he didn’t appear to,” she said. “He took a step forward and he was central in the path of the motorcycle. They collided.”
But another witness, Anthony Wilkinson, said he saw Mr Goddard look in the bike’s direction but step into the road regardless.
Euston traffic police officer PC Michael House described how witnesses saw Mr Goddard with a newspaper “open in front of him” before “running out diagonally into the middle of the road”.
Whether or not he was reading it, it “would have been a distraction”, PC House said. He added that Mr Dunn “didn’t have a chance” to swerve away from Mr Goddard and was driving below the speed limit. |
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