A POPULAR Bolton cyclist was killed after colliding with a 32-ton lorry on his way to work, an inquest heard.

Ian Pendlebury suffered multiple injuries during the collision, which happened during the morning rush hour in Bury New Road on July 16, last year.

The hearing, at Bolton Coroner’s Court, was also told the driver of the heavy goods vehicle, Thomas Duffy, is facing criminal charges in relation to the accident.

Mr Pendlebury, an archive officer for Bolton Library Service, was cycling to work along Folds Road when he stopped at the side of the lorry at the traffic lights on the junction with Bury New Road.

The 50-year-old cyclist, from Bradshaw, started to move forward and collided with the lorry as it turned left into Bury New Road.

In a statement read out in his presence, witness David Hickson, who was travelling behind the lorry, described the moment he saw Mr Pendlebury’s body being “flipped around in the wheels”.

He said: “The lorry was travelling slowly into Bury New Road when I saw the red cycle flip up in the wheels. Seconds later I saw a body under the lorry and then flipped around in the wheels.”

Mr Hickson added that he thought, at that moment, that it was a dummy and it was only when Mr Pendlebury’s body landed on the road that he realised it was a man.

A passer-by administered first aid to Mr Pendlebury, but he was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

Sgt Christopher Noblett, a senior forensic collision investigator, told the inquest that CCTV footage from a nearby shop revealed Mr Duffy would have been able to see Mr Pendlebury, and another cyclist who was not involved in the accident, for a full 27 seconds before all three pulled off from the traffic lights.

A reconstruction of the moments leading up to the collision showed that one of the mirrors on the lorry, on the nearside where Mr Pendlebury’s cycle was stopped, was in a position where it did not offer any view, but maintained that the driver would have had a clear view in the other three mirrors.

Mr Duffy, who expressed his condolences to Mr Pendlebury’s wife, Jill, and her family, took to the witness stand, but was then allowed to step down by assistant deputy coroner Christopher Welton after hearing that criminal proceedings were ongoing against him. Mr Welton told the inquest that a post mortem examination revealed Mr Pendlebury had died from multiple injuries.

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mrs Pendlebury was comforted by her family at the end of the inquest.