By Duncan Mackay

Simon Richardson launches drink driving campaign November 2012December 1 - Double Paralympic gold medallist Simon Richardson is to sue the drink-driver who knocked him off his bike last year and left him fighting for his life. 


The 46-year-old rider from Porthcawl spent nearly a month in hospital, still needs a wheelchair, and missed the London Paralympics after he was seriously injured by farmer Edward Howell Adams.

Adams, who had been drinking the night before the crash and drank his first whisky at 6am when he woke up, ran into Richardson on the A48 near Bridgend in August 2011.

Simon Richardson in hospital bed after accidentSimon Richardson was in hospital for a month after the accident

Earlier this year the 60-year-old from the Vale of Glamorgan was jailed for 18 months and banned from driving for five years after he was convicted of dangerous driving and of failing to stop.

Richardson has now lodged a claim for unlimited damages at the High Court.

Richardson had been left permanently disabled in 2001 when he was involved in a serious crash with a car while out with friends from a cycling club.

He continued cycling to help with his rehabilitation, and won two golds and a silver at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

He is due to go to Stoke Mandeville Hospital for three months in February for intense physiotherapy.

Earlier this week Richardson helped launch a Christmas drink-drive campaign by the Welsh police. 

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