A SHIELDING pensioner was hit by a car on his first trip out of the house after lockdown.

Thomas Barron, 92, of Kidlington, was thrown off his mobility scooter when he hit by a black Audi on July 3 this year.

Witnesses to the crash said he didn’t look before crossing Oxford Road (the A4260) near his home and police investigators found his scooter on the highest speed setting.

Mr Barron, a retired plasterer, was raced to the John Radcliffe Hospital where he stayed for nearly two weeks before he was discharged home.

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But days later he was taken back to hospital where he deteriorated and was handed to the palliative team before dying on August 6.

At his inquest yesterday, the head coroner for Oxfordshire, Darren Salter, said that his official cause of death was hospital acquired pneumonia.

He said there was an ongoing internal review about Mr Barron’s death at the hospital trust.

Statements were also read out from police officers who determined that the crash was unavoidable for the dental nurse who was driving the Audi.

Another driver swerved to the right as he saw Mr Barron crossing the road, but the Audi driver ‘couldn’t have seen him coming’.