A MOTHER whose 29-year-old son died after being hit by a car faces a wait of more than a year until an inquest is held into his death.

Jane Cherrill, 54, from Marston Road, Oxford, said the death of her son, Anthony Oliver, had "broken her heart".

Mrs Cherill, and other members of Mr Oliver's family, said a wait of up to 18 months for an inquest was too long.

Father-of-one Mr Oliver, a painter and decorator from Marston Road, was hit by a car in London Road, Headington, at 1am on Sunday, June 4.

After receiving a call to say Mr Oliver had been hurt, the family rushed to his bedside at the John Radcliffe Hospital - but he died before they had all arrived.

Mrs Cherrill said: "I am heartbroken. I feel that the day Anthony died, I died inside. I shall never have peace of mind. I will take this to my grave.

"He died three hours after the accident. Some of us got to the hospital too late. I keep thinking about him lying on that bed. I'm not the same person I used to be. It makes me bitter and quite angry."

Although the family know Mr Oliver was struck by a car driven by an off-duty taxi-driver, they will not know precisely what happened until an inquest.

Sister Lisa Oliver, 35, of Mortimer Road, Rose Hill, said: "We need some closure. We are just stuck in time and everyone else is getting on with their life.

"When I last saw him he was in that hospital bed. I can't get that out of my head. I got to the hospital two minutes too late. That last picture of him haunts me, I see it when I get up and when I go to bed. It's like a living nightmare."

Brother Mark Oliver, 33, from Coverley Road, Headington, was with Mr Oliver until 10.30pm on the night he died, watching football.

He said: "Basically we just want some answers."

Mr Oliver's fiancee Jo Nicolson, 32, from Lambton Close, Cowley, said her three-year-old daughter Lauren was finding it hard to come to terms with her father's death.

She said: "Anthony was very popular, the church was packed out with people standing at his funeral. He was very sociable. He was a brilliant dad. Lauren's very angry, she's trying to hit out. She wets the bed and talks in her sleep. She was a daddy's girl. I need to explain to her - I can't just say we don't know."

A spokesman for Oxford Coroner's Court said the delay could be because extra time was needed to compile reports and gather evidence. She said: "It does seem quite a long time but it varies between individual cases. It depends on who needs to provide reports, and how complicated it is."

Many families have faced a long wait to get answers into the deaths of their loved ones.

The Oxford family of 22-year-old student Angela Regoczy waited four years for an inquest into her death.

She was killed when a tree fell on the car she was waiting in during heavy storms in 2002, but the inquest only took place earlier this month and the coroner gave a verdict of death by misadventure.

It took two years for an inquest into the death of 20-year-old student Emilie Harris, who was killed after she was hit by a bus in 2004. An inquest in March ruled accidental death but bus driver Paul Willis, 48, of Long Hanborough, was convicted of careless driving this month.

Many military families are awaiting inquests into the deaths of their loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan because of delays at Oxford Coroner's Court.

The workload of Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner has risen sharply over recent years because bodies flown into Brize Norton are his responsibility. He has been given permission to employ more deputy coroners to cope with the extra work.

It is hoped the extra manpower will help tackle the backlog of inquests created by the deaths of British servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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