Pensioner Ronald Jarman died from a blood clot after falling off his moped in wet weather, an inquest heard.

Mr Jarman, 72, a former Rover worker from Arlington Drive, Old Marston, Oxford, was on his Honda Express bike on May 25, when he lost control and fell to the ground in St Clement's.

Oxfordshire coroner's court was told on Thursday that Mr Jarman was treated in hospital for broken ribs and later released.

His wife Barbara told the hearing that when her husband returned home he was still in great pain and was eventually given morphine.

On May 27, she came downstairs to find her husband collapsed in the porch. She called for help from a neighbour, but attempts to revive him failed. Mrs Jarman told the court she felt her husband should not have been released from hospital so early.

But Dr Winifred Gray, consultant pathologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, who carried out a post-mortem examination, said that even if Mr Jarman had remained in hospital he could still have suffered the blood clot on his leg that killed him.

She added: "I doubt whether there would have been any difference had he remained in hospital."

Sharon Freemire, who saw the accident, told how she helped Mr Jarman to take off his motorbike helmet.

"He was struggling for breath," she said. "I did everything I could to help."

Pc Graham Tabersham, of Abingdon police, interviewed Mr Jarman about the accident while he was in hospital, but the pensioner couldn't remember anything about it. Police later examined the moped, but could find nothing wrong with it.

One theory was that the bicycle's stand may have clipped a traffic island, causing the crash.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of accidental death.