Chester motorcyclist died in crash after trying to avoid cat in the road

Cheshire Personal Injury

A MOTORCYCLIST died after crashing into a lamppost when he swerved to avoid a cat, an inquest heard.

David Alexander James Elson, 26, from Cornwall Road, Upton was riding along Liverpool Road towards Parkgate Road in Neston at 4.30am on September 28 last year when he lost control of his Kawasaki ZXR 600.

The crash was witnessed by Stephen Kay, who was walking home after spending the night at his girlfriend’s house.

Mr Kay was still too distressed over the incident to attend the inquest so he supplied a written statement.

It read: “The front wheel caught the curb and the bike just slid across the road. The driver came off and was lying on his back. He asked me to move him off the road.”

A passing milkman saw the bike crash from a distance and arrived at the scene to find Mr Kay crouching over the injured man, who was groaning on the floor.

An ambulance was called and David was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital. He was later moved to Walton Hospital for specialist treatment after doctors discovered he had fractured his spine. His spinal cord was damaged and he was paralysed from the neck down.

Cheshire Police collision investigator Michael Prime told the inquest Mr Elson was travelling at around 34 mph, which was not excessive.

He also noted that pieces of crash helmet at the base of a nearby lamp post made it ‘highly likely’ that he had hit his head. The post was around 8.5m away from where he fell off the bike.

Medical staff established that David had fractured vertebrae in his neck and that the spinal cord had been damaged. He had an emergency operation but his condition started to deteriorate.

He developed deep vein thrombosis which left clots in his bowel and other organs, causing them to shut down, and he died at Walton Hospital on September 26, six days after the accident.

David’s distraught mother Susan Elson, accompanied by her husband and family members, told assistant deputy coroner for Cheshire Jean Harkin: “David was my baby, my youngest child. He was a family man. He loved his family, especially his seven-year-old son.

“He told me he had swerved so he wouldn’t hit a cat. It was the last thing he remembered.”

Verdict: Accidental death.

Source: chesterchronicle.co.uk