The bereaved widow of a popular father-of-three has paid tribute to the man she fell in love with at first sight.

Former Bradford Bulls conditioning coach Eddie McGuiness suffered “non-survivable injuries” when he was in collision with a car as he walked across Huddersfield Road, Low Moor, on the evening of Saturday, March 7 this year.

An inquest into the 43-year-old’s death was adjourned yesterday, but not before a statement from his wife Tracey McGuiness was read out by Coroner Roger Whittaker.

She said: “My life has been torn apart. People tell me to look to the future but Eddie was my future and my life. I am unable to come to terms with what has happened.”

Mrs McGuiness said her husband lived for rugby league and jumped at the chance to work for the Bulls when they asked him to be a conditioner at the club.

She said it was “love at first sight” when they met in 2004 at a gym in Bailiff Bridge and the couple had a baby together, Connor, in October 2008.

“It was the happiest day of our lives after our wedding day,” said Mrs McGuiness.

So far, the inquest has heard evidence from five eye witnesses, including Jessica Ryan, of Wibsey, who had been drinking with Mr McGuiness in the Drop Kick pub on that night and was outside the pub smoking when the collision happened.

Miss Ryan, fighting back tears, told the coroner: “He was going to the British Queen on the other side of the road. He stopped and looked right then left then right again from the edge of the road. He went to the middle and then he got hit by a vehicle coming upwards. I went to where he was and he was not responding.”

Miss Ryan and other friends said Mr McGuiness was not drunk, just “merry”.

Another friend, Claire Johnson, from Woodside, said: “The noise was loud and something I can’t get out of my head. I remember seeing him going up in the air.”

Ryan Johnson, of Woodside, said: “I saw two cars coming – one was silver and one was red. The red car was following the silver car. The silver one hit Eddie. He was 50cm from the edge of the pavement, maybe one or two steps.”

Dr Philip Batman, consultant pathologist at Bradford Royal Infirmary, said the cause of death was haemorrhaging due to multiple fractures. Dr Batman said the alcohol in his system – the equivalent of eight pints of beer – may have impaired his co-ordination and judgement, but added that a man of his size, more than 17 stones, would have been able to withstand alcohol better than a smaller person.

A date for the inquest’s resumption is yet to be fixed.