Heartbroken mother of 12-year-old killed during first cycle on road bike urges parents to supervise new riders

The mother of a 12-year-old boy killed while out cycling with his dad has urged parents to be aware of the possible dangers of riding on the road.

Taira Caton, whose son Corey, died after being hit by the driver of a van on a road near Reading, Berkshire, said she had got 'no closure' following an inquest into his death this week.

Speaking to BerkshireLive after the hearing at Oxfordshire Coroners' Court, Mrs Caton said: “I have had no closure from the inquest, my son’s death has merely been recorded as a road traffic collision and nothing is going to bring him back. 

“But parents have a duty of care and responsibility and you must think twice about your children’s competencies.

“They must have the right training, the right equipment and parents must think twice about taking them out on country roads with blind bends.

“There must never be a lack of supervision.

“Every parent always has a duty of care.”

Corey, a pupil at St Joseph’s College in Reading, lived with Mrs Caton in Shinfield Road.

The accident happened the day after Corey's dad, Daniel,  gave his son a road bike as an early Christmas present. 

Corey had never ridden a road bike before when Mr Caton decided to take his son on a cycle ride to Pangbourne via the B417 Whitchurch Hill.

Corey died after losing control on the hill, skidding across the road and hitting an oncoming van.

The inquest heard, at the top of Whitchurch Hill Mr Caton cycled ahead and was near the bottom of the hill, waiting for his son to arrive, when he saw traffic mounting up.

He cycled back up and saw Corey lying on the ground. He told the inquest he had not heard the impact between his son and the van.

The court heard Corey rode his mountain bike off road but his mother said she would never let him ride to school on the roads because of the traffic.

Coroner Darren Salter concluded Corey was an inexperienced cyclist riding an unfamiliar bicycle on an unfamiliar route.

He recorded Corey’s death on November 9, 2020 as a road traffic collision after suffering a traumatic brain injury.

After his death, Corey's organs helped save the lives of two people

He was treated at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital but died two days after the crash after undergoing surgery to alleviate pressure on his brain.

Mrs Caton says: “They operated but I could see in the doctors’ eyes that it was highly unlikely it would work.

“They switched the machine off on the Monday morning and I think they waited until then so the organ transplant teams could be ready.”

The schoolboy’s heart saved the life of a man in his early 40s and his kidneys went to a woman in her teens and a man aged in his 30s, both of whom were long-term dialysis patients.

Mrs Caton added: “He loved maths and art and never like to see anyone upset, he never let anyone feel excluded.”

His father released a statement through Thames Valley Police about the ‘worst nightmare’ of losing his ‘beloved son.’ 

He said “I truly wish anything else that day had happened. That we went left not right, that we’d never gone cycling that day or any other day, anything that meant Corey was still alive today, still the intelligent, loving and chuckling, witty son with his whole future ahead of him.

"His loss has and will continue to heavily weigh down on his entire family in the absence of his joyous company, someone that his grandparents and I had so many more plans for.

“Our world has been shattered.”