Motorcyclist suffered fatal injuries after losing control of bike, inquest hears
Conner Dickinson, 24, of Horwich died on November 21, 2023 following a crash at the junction of Tonge Moor Road and Thicketford Road.
An inquest at Bolton Coroners’ Court heard that Conner had been filtering between two lanes of traffic on Tonge Moor Road.
Susan Dooley, who was in one of the cars in the left lane, said: “I saw movement in my rear view mirror and when I looked it was a bike.”
She said that he seemed to be “losing control of his bike”.
Christine Sutcliffe, was in one of the cars in the left lane, with two or three cars in front of her before the traffic lights.
She said: “I felt something catch my car and I heard this noise, and then next thing I know, there’s an off-road type bike driving past me.”
She said that the bike had “clipped the mirror” but that it “would have been just a slight clip”.
Kimberley Fitton, who was in one of the cars in the left lane, said that she heard the bike approach to the right of her car.
She said: “It seemed like the engine was on high revs, it seemed to be travelling fast but I couldn’t say how fast.
“He fell and then rolled in front of the lorry, but he (Conner) looked disorientated.”
The court heard that when she saw that the lights were about to turn green, she beeped on her horn to try to stop the truck from moving.
Daniel Bowes, who was two cars behind the truck in the right lane, said that Conner falling off the bike and the lights turning green were “very close together”.
He said: “When Conner fell off his bike it was pretty simultaneous with the lights turning green”
Have a story? Get in touch at eoin.mccaul@newsquest.co.uk
The court heard that Mr Bowes was travelling from Bolton Town Centre in the right lane when he heard a loud noise from behind him.
Mr Bowes looked in his mirror and saw the bike, telling the inquest that he was travelling “at some speed”, “especially for filtering”.
Coroner Timothy Brennand said: “You thought something along the lines of ‘he’s driving like a d***’, that’s what you put in your statement”.
Mr Bowes saw him hit the wing mirror and after he fell, beeped his horn to try and stop the HGV driver from moving.
He said: “I knew exactly when he hit the car, I saw him going to fall. I just knew, anywhere he would go on the road, it’s going to be dangerous.”
PC Martin Davies, forensic collision reconstruction officer for GMP, reviewed CCTV and dashcam footage of the incident.
He said: “The footage shows that Conner was not pulling a wheely.”
PC Davies told the court that they had identified a “couple of defects” on Conner’s motorbike which may have led him to lose control after hitting the wing mirror.
He said: “What I would say, is that the defects would not have contributed to the initial impact, but they would have had an impact on the subsequent loss of control.
“I wouldn’t expect that impact to cause such a loss of control.”
PC Davies said, however, that it was impossible to tell whether the loss of control was because of the defects or an overcorrection by Conner.
It was not established what speed Conner was travelling at.
Pawel Pieda, the driver of the HGV that collided with Conner, gave evidence at the inquest.
The coroner read out his statement.
He said: “There was one car in front of me, I was ten minutes from my destination.
“After a short while in traffic the lights changed from red to green. Before setting off, I checked all four mirrors.
“I only drove a metre before I heard a big bang, it seemed like an explosion, I checked my left mirror to see a motorbike.
“I then understood something happened and it was bad.”
Mr Pieda said that he got out of his truck to see if there was anything he could do, but it was clear that he “wasn’t going to make it”.
Mr Pieda needed an interpreter to translate questions into Polish as he did not speak English.
He exercised his right to not to respond to questions in the inquest, responding to every question with “I cannot answer this question because it may lead to self-incrimination”.
The inquest was shown dashcam footage from Mr Pieda’s HGV at the time of Conner’s death.
He is shown to turn his head to view the left mirror only after moving.
PC Davies said the check was made “0.4 seconds” after starting to move, but added that even if the check had been made he may not have stopped.
READ MORE: Bury: Tragedy as girl died after ‘impulsive act’
READ MORE: Bolton man desperately banged neighbour’s door before death
READ MORE: Bolton dad-of-two died following complications after heart surgery
He said: “There’s an infinite amount of possibilities when he could have checked his mirrors and when he could have set off.
“He would have had to look in that mirror at that specific point.”
In the footage, Mr Pieda leaned over to check in front of the vehicle, which PC Davies said showed “a level of care”.
He said: “The fact that a HGV driver is consciously looking over the dash, the fact that is undertaken shows a level of care.
The post-mortem gave the cause of death as traumatic head injury caused by going under the wheel of the vehicle which led to a ‘massive fatal injury’.
The inquest continues.
Source – INDIA TV
