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Inquest hears helmet failed to save cyclist
Coroner rules in cyclist’s death
A KEEN Holloway cyclist died from a head injury despite wearing a crash helmet, an inquest heard yesterday (Thursday).
The court also heard that computer programmer Geoffrey Edwards, 59, had survived two other accidents when he had not been wearing protective headgear.
The first incident happened 20 years ago when he was cycling back to Islington from Uxbridge and woke up in hospital with a fractured skull.
Then five years ago he hit a road hump in Crouch End.
His wife Judith, 60, told the St Pancras court: “That time was quite dramatic.
“An air ambulance was sent and he was in hospital overnight.”
She added: “In both of those injuries he wasn’t wearing a helmet. I’m devastated by the fact that he thought wearing a helmet would save his head.”
Mr Edwards died four months after he fell off his bike as he was turning from Tufnell Park Road into a side road near his home, in Fairmead Road, Tufnell Park.
He was an “expert” cyclist, and as an active member of his local cyclist club had been involved in numerous races and cycle challenges over the years.
Mrs Edwards’ neighbour saw the accident in the afternoon of Monday, July 2, and rushed to tell her what had happened.
“Geoff was cycling along and just appeared to stumble and fall off,” Mrs Edwards told the court.
Doctors at the Royal Free, in Pond Street, Hampstead, resolved that Mr Edwards’ subsequent stroke was directly related to the head injury.
A fit or seizure while riding his bike was also ruled out, the court heard.
At the end of August last year he was transferred to the Whittington Hospital, in Magdala Avenue, until he could be moved to a specialist neurological unit in Putney.
A chest infection was staved off by physiotherapy and regular visits to the gym at the Whittington but took hold while in Putney.
He suffered a fever and underwent a tracheotomy, to open his airways.
He died surrounded by his family in November last year, four days after he was admitted to the Marie Curie Hospice in Lyndhurst Gardens, Belsize Park.
Coroner Dr Andrew Reid said Mr Edwards died from pneumonia due to a brain injury and a stroke.
He said: “He was seen to wobble and fell from his bicycle and sustained the traumatic head injury despite wearing his helmet. It’s probably testament to his fitness that he survived as long as he did.”
Verdict: Accident |
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