A biker dad-of-three died from a pulmonary embolism two months after falling off his Triumph Thunderbird only yards from his home, an inquest has heard.

Mark Bennett, 43, of Netherwood, Denholme, was found dead at home in his reclining chair by his wife Wai-Ling on the morning of September 1 last year, several weeks after having a steel cage fitted to his badly fractured leg.

His pulmonary artery, which is the blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the lungs, had become blocked, said Assistant Bradford Coroner Dr Dominic Bell at the hearing in Bradford yesterday.

He concluded that Mr Bennett’s death was associated with the road traffic accident on July 4. On that day, the motorcycle enthusiast had been checking his bike for a sticking throttle at slow speed when he lost his balance and it fell on him.

He had surgery at Leeds General Infirmary and was later transferred to Airedale General Hospital for rehabilitation and physiotherapy – but once home he had not been exercising, the inquest was told.

In a statement read to the hearing, Mrs Bennett, a nurse, said her husband had refused to move and decided to sleep in a chair downstairs, unwilling to move from it because he was in pain and discomfort.

He had been on a course of antibiotics for an infection around one of the steel pins in his leg and he had been complaining of flu-like symptoms and feeling winded.

Mrs Bennett said: “He had not wanted to do anything; he just sat in his chair all day long and had not being doing his exercises. I know he was unwilling to do it because of the pain.”

She said she had tried to push him into doing his exercises, adding: “He just would not co-operate with me and help himself.”

Mrs Bennett said the only time he had moved from his chair the day before she found him dead was to check on his fish tank.

“He refused to get up, saying he just wanted to sit there,” she said.

Mr Bennett, who worked as an electrician and joiner and taught at Leeds City College’s Keighley Campus, was a member of Hebden Bridge-based Bridge Rat Bikers. Scores of bikers paid a final fitting tribute at his funeral when they accompanied his hearse to Nab Wood Crematorium, Shipley.