A motorcyclist who was about to become a dad for the third time died after being knocked off his motorbike by a car at a dangerous junction, an inquest has heard. Aaron Edwards, 42, was driving his red Kawasaki motorbike along the Gurnos Ring Road in Merthyr Tydfil when he collided with a black Ford Fiesta at around 6pm on August 30, 2020.
An inquest held at Pontypridd Coroner's Court on Tuesday, September 28, heard Mr Edwards, of Forsythia Close in the Gurnos suffered from mental health issues including anxiety and depression and that he had been unemployed for a period before he died. A statement read on behalf of his long-term partner Joanne Callahan said Mr Edwards had become happier after joining a biker's club which he attended a couple of times a week.
Ms Callahan, who was pregnant with their first child together at the time of Mr Edwards' death, said the couple had been happy in their relationship despite his unemployment and that "if [they] didn't have money for something, [they] didn't have it." She said her partner, who also has a son and daughter, was looking forward to welcoming his third child in March 2021.
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The inquest heard Mr Edwards had been riding his bike with friends towards the Black Mountains on August 30, 2020. A statement from Paul Davies said Mr Edwards had seemed "in good spirits" and that the group had stopped at the Owl's Nest in Llandovery that afternoon for a coffee before he left the group at Abergavenny to pick up his partner.
He said a few hours after he got home, he got a call to say Mr Edwards had had an accident. He was later informed that Mr Edwards had died. He added that he had "struggled to come to terms" with Mr Edwards' death, calling him a "good friend" and saying he "can't believe he has gone."
A statement from Wesley Beynon, one of several people who gave Mr Edwards CPR after the accident, said the pair had separated at one point and that as he was going up the Gurnos Ring Road that evening he saw building traffic and "had a sixth sense that something had happened." He followed the road and saw a black Ford Fiesta which had stopped and Mr Edwards lying on the road, and he ripped open his jacket in order to perform CPR before others joined to help and emergency services attended.
A witness statement from Stephen Beynon, who attended the aftermath of the accident, said he arrived to see Mr Edwards' Kawasaki motorbike "in a number of pieces" and Mr Edwards on the ground bleeding heavily. Efforts by friends and paramedics to revive him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ashley Rees, who was driving the black Ford Fiesta involved in the crash, told the inquest he had been driving to his nan's house with his young daughter in the front seat when he collided with Mr Edwards' motorbike as he was turning right at the junction from Goitre Lane onto Gurnos Ring Road.
Mr Rees said he knew the junction well and described it as "horrible" and that drivers' view was "really restricted" when turning right as he had been doing on the day. He said he had checked left and right before cautiously moving onto the road, at which point he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye before he collided with Mr Edwards, who had been travelling eastbound in the opposite direction. Asked if there was any prospect of him having seen Mr Edwards before the crash, he said: "I didn't see him at all."
Mr Edwards' partner Joanne asked whether Mr Rees had heard the sound of Mr Edwards' exhaust, which she said was quite loud. Coroner Rachel Knight suggested Mr Rees had previously said he was playing "loud music" in the car on the day, something he admitted was the case.
The inquest also heard from PC Chris Westren of South Wales Police who said investigations indicated that Mr Edwards had been travelling at around 73mph in the immediate lead-up to the crash, more than double the speed limit on the Gurnos Ring Road, which was 30mph. He added that Mr Edwards had been wearing his helmet at the time but that it appeared to have been unfastened at the time the accident occurred.
He said further investigations confirmed Mr Edwards had been riding at "no less than 70mph" before the crash and that reconstructions of the incident indicated that Mr Rees' car position further back from the line on the junction, poor visibility and Mr Edwards' speed meant Mr Rees would not have seen the motorcyclist before the incident happened. He said there could be improvements made to safety at the junction: "You could potentially have traffic calming measures to slow traffic or extreme measures would be a traffic light controlled junction."
DI Alan Efstathiou from South Wales Police said Mr Rees had been interviewed by police in relation to the incident but that the CPS had decided against bringing a charge against him. Both drug and alcohol tests conducted on Mr Rees after the event were also clear. A report by consultant pathologist Dr Richard Jones said Mr Edwards had died from blunt injuries to the face, neck and trunk. A small amount of codeine and paracetamol were found in his system but they were ruled not to have played any part in his death.
Coroner Rachel Knight accepted the pathology report and recorded a medical cause of death of blunt injuries to the face, neck and trunk. She said Mr Edwards was an "experienced" motorcyclist and had been driving at "excessive speed" at the time of the incident. She said Mr Rees had taken "sufficient care" before moving off from the junction, saying that Mr Edwards' speed meant "there was no possibility of Mr Rees seeing him before the collision occurred."
On the issue of safety at the junction, Ms Knight called it "dangerous" and issued a prevention of future death order for increased safety measures on the road such as traffic lights, speed bumps and addressing parking at nearby schools. She said Mr Edwards had suffered "catastrophic injuries" in the incident and returned a conclusion of death by road traffic collision.
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