THE widow of a man who died after his beloved vintage car ‘Daisy’ crushed him as he worked underneath it, has said “there was no-one else like him”.

Father-of-two Brian Cross, 68, who preferred to be known as Doug, suffered several broken ribs and a punctured lung in a freak accident in April while he was restoring one of his collection of five vintage cars, an inquest heard.

He died 13 days later in Great Western Hospital (GWH) from respiratory failure as a result of his injuries.

Deputy coroner for Swindon and Wiltshire, Peter Hatvany, recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Speaking after the hearing at the Civic Offices, in Euclid Street, his widow Brenda said: “There was no other man like him in my eyes and I will always miss him. He was my right hand like I was his.

“It’s so tragic that he died doing something he loved. He had five of them that he kept well maintained and I never complained.”

On Saturday, April 17, Mr Cross, of Chelworth Road, Cricklade, had been changing a spring on a 1949 Rover 75 when the car, nicknamed Daisy, collapsed on him and crushed his right side.

He called for Brenda’s help and she called out to neighbours, who rushed to his aid.

One of those was next door neighbour Robert Boltman who attempted to place another jack underneath the car to free Mr Cross.

He was joined by two young men from across the road, one of which phoned for an ambulance at 2.38pm. The three men managed to use the jack to lift the car six inches off Mr Cross’s chest.

Fire crews and paramedics arrived on the scene around five minutes later and found him lying conscious to the side of the vehicle.

The inquest heard a fireman who attended the scene suggested one of the four axel jacks, which Mr Cross had used to prop the car up, had slipped from its original position.

He was taken to the GWH high dependency unit.

By the first Wednesday Mr Cross showed signs of improvement and could recognise all of his family who had come to visit him.

But later in the day he had a high temperature and was given antibiotics to treat the onset of early pneumonia. He died on Friday, April 30 in hospital.

The result of the autopsy concluded that Mr Cross died of respiratory failure caused by pneumothorax and haemothorax, where air and blood enter the cavity in a punctured lung, which was in turn a direct result of the trauma he suffered in the accident.

But the inquest heard there were also underlying health conditions such as heart disease, which persisted even after Mr Cross had a triple heart bypass 1996, and diabetes which could have indirectly contributed to his death, the pathologist’s report stated.

Mrs Cross said afterwards: “It’s going to be a long time out of my memory.”