The sole survivor of a car wreck caused by the horror smash in Penryn last week has paid tribute to his wife, who died in the crash.

Nigel Toy, aged 65, was the front seat passenger in his friend’s BMW 3-series when it was struck by a tipper lorry at the junction of Brown’s Hill and the B3292 on Wednesday.

The impact at 12.50pm killed the driver of the car, 82-year-old Jeremy Tetley from Grampound, and Nigel’s 61-year-old wife Bridget, who was sat in the back seat.

The group had just set off from the Toy’s home in Penryn and were headed for the river to help Mr Tetley with a new engine for his yacht Carte Blanche.

“We went down through West End and the road was shut through Penryn, which was half of the problem really,” Nigel said.

In search of an alternative route, they “turned up round the creamery and that’s the last thing I remember.”

Three quarters of an hour later Nigel woke up in a helicopter en route to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Truro. What he believes to be the car’s handbrake had jammed in to his side, damaging his pelvis.

“I kept asking about my wife. She was in the rear behind the driver you see,” he said.

But the answers to Nigel’s questions would bring him little comfort. “I was the only one who came out of it,” he said.

The 22-year-old driver of the Fiat Ducato flatbed truck, from Penzance, suffered only minor injuries and was treated at the scene by paramedics.

Both Mrs Toy and Mr Tetley were pronounced dead at the scene.

Speaking from his home after the crash, which closed the former main road out of Penryn for six hours on Wednesday afternoon, Nigel paid tribute to Bridget.

“She was the love of my life, tragically taken,” he told the Packet. “She was always generous and caring. We are lucky we had a few good holidays this year, because she said you never know what’s going to happen.

The memories of those happy times together were some small comfort to help him through this terrible tragedy, Nigel said.

“Bridget really looked after me. She kept everything nice and she had bright ideas and she was fun. She was the complete package,” he added.

The accident completed a week of horror on the roads.

Only the day before, July 2, two cyclists on a charity ride from John o’Groats were killed in a collision with a lorry on the A30. Former army officer Andrew McMenigall and University Boat Race winner and Cambridge graduate Toby Wallace were aiming to raise £10,000 for the Kirsten Scott Memorial Trust. They were declared dead at the scene.