A FATHER-OF-THREE was killed after being dragged beneath a bus in a “freak incident”, an inquest heard.

Delroy Finney, aged 46, collapsed “within a second” of stepping off the bus as it pulled away from a stop in Athlone Avenue, Astley Bridge.

A rapid series of events led to the “catastrophic consequences” of Mr Finney’s death on May 9 this year, according to the coroner yesterday.

Mr Finney, who was well known in the Oldhams Estate, was three and quarter times the drink-drive limit at the time of his death.

The driver of the single deck Arriva bus, William Henderson, saw Mr Finney get off the bus with another passenger.

Mr Henderson said Mr Finney disappeared from view after he stepped onto the pavement.

The driver said: “I saw him step off the bus and then I did all my checks.

“If had seen someone in my mirrors or around the bus, I would never have pulled away.”

Susan Sandbach, a resident of Athlone Avenue, saw a man believed to Mr Finney suddenly collapse.

Mrs Sandbach, whose house overlooked the crash scene, said: “I mistook the man for an elderly gentlemen crossing the road which is why I got up to have a look.

“When I looked out of the window, there was no one on the pavement.”

Other witnesses said they initially mistook his body for clothes thrown under the bus, which had continued to the terminal near the former Oldhams Primary School.

In statement read out to Bolton Coroner’s Court yesterday, Danielle Beardsworth, said: “I stopped the car and realised it was the body of a person.

“I got out of the car and I tried to call an ambulance but I was in shock and I couldn’t work my phone."

Police officers were only able to identify Mr Finney by a distinctive tattoo on his arm.

A pathologist at the inquest said Mr Finney had died of multiple injuries.

Mr Finney, a former IT technician had worked in London, and between 2010 and 2014 had lived in the Philippines with his second wife, Anna Rose.

He had returned to the UK three days before his death to stay indefinitely. He had a history of heavy drinking but the night before his death, his daughter Charlene Finney, said he seemed sober.

Mr Finney, who was staying with his mother in Oldhams Terrace, had caught the bus into Bolton for an appointment at the job centre.

When he caught the bus from Bridge Street shortly before 2pm, the driver suspected he was drunk.

Alan Walsh, area coroner for Greater Manchester West, said: “It was a situation where everything happened within a matter of seconds, perhaps not more.

“Within that time frame Delroy Finney got off the bus, turned to the right and fell in front of it. It was a very quick and rapid succession of events which led to the catastrophic consequences of Mr Finney’s death. This road traffic collision was horrendous.”

Mr Walsh ruled the cause of death as multiple injuries caused by a road traffic collision.

The bus driver did not face any criminal charges.