A MOPED rider knocked down a man on a pedestrian crossing leaving him with serious leg injuries.

Adrian Cifra saw traffic stopping at a crossing on De Havilland Way but instead of slowing, he speeded up as the lights changed from amber.

Heading in between the rows of stationary vehicles, his view of 31-year-old Thomas Rainford was masked by a lorry and he ploughed into him.

At Bolton Magistrates’ Court 22-year-old Cifra pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving as his victim appealed for him to be spared jail.

“Although Mr Cifra made a terrible decision, he showed genuine remorse at the scene and since and I would hope no prison sentence is being considered,” said Mr Rainford in a statement read to the court by Jade Coleman, prosecuting.

The court heard how the traffic was heavy on De Havilland Way, Middlebrook, on September 25 last year when Mr Rainford reached the pedestrian crossing.

“The green man showed, he walked into the road and remembers a bang and being hit to the floor,” said Mrs Coleman, who added that another pedestrian witnessed Mr Rainford being thrown into the air. He was taken to hospital with a badly fractured leg, needed two lots of surgery and now fears the injury will have ended the hiking he enjoys with his wife.

When questioned by police Cifra, a self employed valeter of Furness Crescent, Leigh, admitted he had seen the lights changing to red.

“I carried on because I thought there was no one standing there. I didn’t see him,” he said.

Mrs Coleman added that, when interviewed by police Cifra said he had been riding between cars at 20 to 25mph.

“He saw the lights turn to amber, thought he would give it a bit of acceleration to get through before it turned red but there was a flat bed truck so he couldn’t see whether there were any pedestrians waiting to cross the road,” said Mrs Coleman.

“He didn’t really remember hitting the victim.”

Glen Wrigley, defending, said Cifra was immediately remorseful, taking off his own coat at the scene to keep Mr Rainford warm.

“He is a very nice young man. He’s made a mistake and got it disastrously wrong. If he could take it back he would,”said Mr Wrigley.

The court heard that Cifra suffered his own tragedy just three weeks after the collision when his one-year-old daughter died.

Magistrates decided that their powers were not sufficient and so sent the case to Bolton Crown Court where Cifra will be sentenced on October 19.

In the meantime he was banned from driving and granted unconditional bail.