Cyclist to tell inquest how car killed trio out training

Mark Ferguson. Photo / Supplied

Wayne Aberhart still thinks about the day he told his late-rising son to stay home and skip their Sunday bike ride.

Mr Aberhart was with friends from his cycling group, "The Cream of the Country", who were helping him to prepare for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge a couple of weeks away.

The group were nearly an hour into their ride on Morrinsville-Walton Rd when Mr Aberhart rounded a corner on a steep hill and saw a motorist driving past.

"She looked me right in the eyes and my thought was, 'She's going to cut the corner.'

"Then I heard someone phoning and saying, 'There's been a crash and there's bodies.'

"Then I went further around the corner and saw the scene, which was horrific, quite frankly."

Mr Aberhart is among five witnesses who will make submissions at a coroner's inquest being held at the High Court in Hamilton today that will examine the deaths of his friends Kay Wolfe, Mark Ferguson and Wilhelm "Willy" Muller.

Mr Ferguson and Mr Muller died at the scene on November 14 when Kristy King lost control of her car on a bend, crossed the centreline and slid sideways for about 36m before hitting them.

Mrs Wolfe died in the intensive care unit of Waikato Hospital four days later.

In February, King was sentenced to 300 hours' community work, disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay $10,000 to the family of each of the three victims.

Mr Aberhart, who hopes the inquest will help to improve road safety for cyclists, said his son Liam had ridden with the group every Sunday for a year but was still asleep as he was getting ready to go.

"Two minutes before I was due to leave he said, 'I'm coming', and I said, 'No you're not, you'll make me late.'

"Now I just thank God that I was there and he wasn't.

"When I rang my wife from the scene I just said, 'Look, there's been an accident and it's pretty horrific'." Roger Wolfe, husband of Kay, said his son Gavin would also make a submission at the inquest.

Mr Wolfe gave up cycling after his wife was killed. Gavin also no longer rides on the road, preferring mountainbiking instead.