A CORONER is set to write to motorcycling chiefs with a safety recommendation in the wake of a rider’s death following a race.

Recruitment consultant Carl Hughes fell from his bike and was run over by a fellow competitor during a novice event at Catterall’s Farm in Clayton-le-Dale on August 2, an inquest at Clitheroe was told.

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While Blackburn coroner Michael Singleton was satisfied with health and safety provisions at the Ribchester Road meeting, he was concerned that chest protectors were not mandatory under Moto Cross Federation (MCF) rules.

Mr Hughes had been wearing boots, gloves, goggles and a padded t-shirt when he came off his KTM 450 bike just after the first corner.

But the 32-year-old, who had suffered from deep vein thrombosis in the past, was immobilised after breaking four bones in his back and died of a pulmonary embolism in hospital, the inquest was told.

Fellow rider Shaun Jones said he saw a Kawasaki bike ahead of him ‘bobble’.

“He has ended up on the floor and Carl got on up on all fours. To me it felt like he had hit something on the track,” said Mr Jones.

Paramedic Blake Regan, of private contractor EMS, said that initially the hurt rider maintained he didn’t need medical attention – but did complain of breathing difficulties. He also refused to be placed on a spinal board.

“If he had sustained an obvious spinal injury, I would not have expected him to be so mobile,” said Mr Regan, who handed over his care to an air ambulance crew.

Mr Hughes, of Victoria Court, Station Road, Otley, was airlifted to the Royal Preston Hospital, where it was found he had broken the T5, T6, T7 and T8 bones in his back, and it was expected he would be later fitted with a brace to recuperate.

But he suffered a major blood clot in his lungs, within four days of the crash.

After being informed of his death on August 6, Roy Austin, his consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said: “I found this news to be personally very shocking and distressing.”

An inquiry by Ribble Valley Council’s environmental health department found no safety concerns, the court heard, and Wayne Rowe, clerk to the course and chairman of organisers Newton-le-Willows Moto Cross Club, said the track design had not been altered from previous meetings, in which both riders had competed.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Coroner Mr Singleton said that he would write to the MCF, to ask if they would consider making chest protectors mandatory equipment in future.