A LORRY driver reached for his mobile phone moments before he hit and fatally injured a cyclist on the A38, Plymouth Crown Court this week heard.

Rider Chris Dennehy, aged 58, was thrown through the air ‘like a rag doll’ following the collision, a jury was told.

Driver John Noble of Horrabridge later told a boss that he had reached across the cab for his phone just before the crash.

The manager told the jury that the 42-year-old said he looked up and was ‘on top of’ the cyclist.

Mr Dennehy, a supermarket worker, suffered multiple injuries to his head and body and could not have survived. He was pronounced dead about two hours later.

Noble was at the wheel of a DAF lorry which struck Mr Dennehy on the Exeter-bound carriageway of the A38 opposite the Smithaleigh turn-off outside Plympton on the morning of September 5 last year.

Noble is on trial having denied causing the death of Mr Dennehy by dangerous driving. He has pleaded guilty to the less serious alternative of causing death by careless driving.

Piers Norsworthy, opening the case for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Noble told police at the scene he must have ‘drifted’ to the left before he saw a flash. He added the cyclist had been on the hard verge of the road, on the other side of the rumble strip marking the near side of the inner lane.

The court heard Noble did not give a full explanation in police interview, mainly answering ‘no comment’.

Nigel Pearce, regional director at Saltash-based courier Righton, said Noble had worked as a driver for the company for about 20 months before the accident.

He added that Noble came to see him three days after the crash.

Mr Pearce said: “He said that he needed to tell me something.

‘He said that while driving on the 5th he had reached across to play, specifically, a sermon on his mobile phone.

‘Then he looked up and he was on top of the cyclist.

‘He said it all happened in a split second.

‘He hit him on the nearside wing.’

The manager said drivers were warned never to use their mobile phones unless parked.

The court heard the road was straight at that point, the weather was good and the carriageway was dry.

The vehicle’s tachograph showed it was travelling at 54mph just before impact.

Care assistant Linda Richards, who was driving a Fiat camper behind the Righton lorry, said she first noticed ‘dust’.

She added: ‘I saw a body being thrown through the air like a rag doll against the crash barrier.’

Mrs Richards added she never noticed the lorry ‘drifting’ and thought it was travelling normally.

Mr Dennehy’s mother Mary said he had cycled most days to work at the Tesco store in Lee Mill from the Plympton home they shared.

She added in a statement that he had followed the same route since the branch opened some 35 years ago.

She said in a statement that on the day of the accident he was wearing a high visibility jacket and a white helmet.

Mrs Dennehy, a widow with two other children, said he was ‘fastidious’about his cycling.

She added he even carried a dustpan and brush to sweep up any broken glass on the road to prevent punctures.

The trial continues.