An inquest into the death of a respected Yorkshire journalist has recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Halifax Evening Courier business editor Arnold Woods, (55), was involved in a collision with a car while out cycling at the beginning of June.

He was treated for head injuries at Leeds General Infirmary but died a week later, on June 13. He never regained consciousness.

The inquest heard that Arnold, known as Arnie, had been cycling “fairly quickly” when he was in collision with a car driven by Shirley Szemruk.

Shirley’s daughter Victoria told the inquest how her mother had stopped to make a right hand turn and couldn’t see any traffic coming towards them.

But Victoria suddenly saw a pedal cyclist approaching and shouted to her mum to brake in a bid to avoid him. But by the time she had stopped the car, the cyclist – Arnold – was lying in the road.

His widow Margaret told the court that her husband was an experienced cyclist but had not been wearing a helmet because he didn’t like wearing them.

Deputy coroner Mark Hinchliffe recorded a verdict of accidental death saying: “No person more than Mrs Szemruk has agonised as to why she didn’t see Mr Woods.”

Arnold joined the Evening Courier in May 1986 as industrial correspondent before being promoted to business editor.

He had previously worked on several newspapers, including the Hunts Post, Reading Evening Post, Lincolnshire Echo and Lancashire Evening Post.