The wife of a motorcyclist, who could have been saved after an accident had the ambulance not been delayed, has spoken of her pain at being widowed at 28.

Aaron Morris, 31, died about six hours after being hit by a car in Ash Winning, County Durham on 1 July 2022.

His widow, Samantha Morris, said she felt “pain and sadness” that even though she was with him, she did not hold his hand because she did not realize he was dying.

The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said lessons had been learned and it had taken “a number of actions” following Mr Morris’ death.

An inquest in Crook, County Durham, last week revealed that ambulances took 54 minutes to reach the scene due to huge demand.

It was also heard that if Mr Morris had been treated quickly he would have had around a 95% chance of survival.

However, a specialist paramedic, known as a Clinical Team Leader (CTL), was not deployed to the accident.

Mrs Morris, who was pregnant with twins at the time of her husband’s death, said: “I shouldn’t have been a single parent to three children, that wasn’t the plan. I shouldn’t have been widowed at 28.

“Especially at this time of year, when Christmas comes, there is a lot of pain and sadness.”

He told the BBC how he accidentally came across the crash site while returning from a hospital appointment.

She said: “I saw there was an accident on the road, I picked up my phone to call Aaron and said I was going to stop and see if he needed a hand. But then I again Looked and saw it was Aaron.

“I thought he had some broken ribs and obviously some internal injuries, but I thought… ‘It doesn’t matter what’s wrong with him, when he gets to the hospital they’ll fix him. Will do it.

She didn’t realize how serious her husband’s condition was, she said, so she spent time helping the ambulance crew.

She said, “I didn’t know he was going to die and instead of holding his hand while the paramedics were working on him, I was running for tools, I was running for scissors, I was cutting his clothes. Was.”

Coroner Crispin Oliver concluded that it was “highly likely” that Mr Morris, who suffered cardiac arrest, would have survived if available specialist medical treatment had been applied “timely”.

NEAS medical director Dr Kat Noble said the service “unreservedly apologises”.

“We acknowledge that opportunities were missed to deploy a clinical team leader to this incident,” he said.

“The service fully accepts the coroner’s findings and has taken a number of actions as a result of its investigation.”

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