Copyright dailyrecord
A young widow endured the heartbreak of organising her husband's funeral without even knowing what killed him. Louise Liddle was just 39 when her husband, John Michael Liddle, was hit by a minibus and died. An inquest held earlier this year heard how father-of-two John, 44, who was on his bicycle, was struck from behind by a minibus that was trying to overtake him. The fatal incident happened at 11.40pm on May 3, 2023. He never recovered from his head injuries and died more than two weeks later on May 21. No criminal charges were brought against the minibus driver and John's funeral was held about a month after his death. Louise moved out of the family home in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, due to the trauma of the incident, saying: "I had a funeral for my husband without knowing how he died. Police couldn't tell me anything because they hadn't been able to interview the driver. "My kids were six and nine at the time and wanted to know how their dad had died but I wasn't able to give them those answers. My eldest had his ninth birthday in the hospital with John in the ICU. "It was awful thinking, 'please don't die on your son's birthday'. He was in a coma then and we knew that he wasn't going to wake up from it. But in all that time I don't know what had happened to my husband. I had a funeral to organise and no idea how I got in that scenario." Louise praised the efforts of medical staff and police officers, but discovered that there was no set procedure for how companies in the bus industry handled fatal incidents. This included issues around the psychological and legal support for drivers involved in traumatic events. She claims that confusion over how the minibus driver would be legally represented meant that police had to wait more than nine weeks before being able to formally interview the driver. The collision happened on the A694 Lockhaugh Road, in Rowlands Gill, as John was turning right into Sherburn Park Drive. John was quickly taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle upon Tyne. Louise, who has moved to Stocksfield, Northumberland, following the incident, said: "As a country we don't have a quality framework for how bus companies should be conducting themselves, so how can you then get consistency? It all comes to a head when someone is killed. It's very traumatic. "But because there's not the volume of these incidents happening - it's not every day that a bus causes a fatality - I think there's not enough attention being paid to it." Now she is campaigning to improve the way the bus industry handles such incidents. Louise is working with the bus industry to implement several changes, including ensuring that all bus companies provide appropriate legal representation for drivers involved in serious incidents, thereby preventing long delays in police investigations caused by inconsistent company policies. She is also calling on all companies to offer proper psychological and professional support for drivers involved in traumatic events to avoid situations where drivers return to work too soon without the necessary support. Louise explained that while some bus companies are already implementing such policies, she hopes that an industry standard can be introduced that all firms must follow. She is also calling for uniform safety, training, and conduct standards as conditions for winning public transport contracts. Paying tribute to her husband, who she met on a train from Newcastle to Durham, Louise said: "The ironic thing is we used to call him Captain Health and Safety. I can't believe somebody who was so safe has been killed in such a way. "He was always so risk-averse. I was the one who would take the kids mountain climbing while he would be saying let's go to a cafe. He worked in finance, so he had to be risk -averse and measured; it was just his nature." Recalling the incident she added that John was an experienced cyclist and had completed the coast-to-coast route several times. She added: "John was a very good cyclist. He had been on his bike the day before and done 40 miles. "He used to do that route every night in the summer because would go to football and cycle home. He was completely covered in lights and was wearing a reflective jacket and his bike had recently been serviced too. He was very safe."
