He wasn't wearing a cycling helmet, but given the severity of the injury it wouldn't have made any differenc

William Norris QC

At London's High Court on Tuesday he was awarded �4.15m from Mr Smith's insurance company which admitted liability.

Mr Hadden lives with his wife Elizabeth and three children aged 13, 10, and eight, in Fairmilehead, Edinburgh.

The accident happened in July 1997 near Empingham, Rutland, near Leicestershire.

Mr Hadden's counsel, William Norris QC, told the court how his client had just moved from Scotland to Peterborough when the accident occurred, during one of Mr Haddon's regular Sunday afternoon cycling jaunts.

Finance director

He said: "He suffered devastating brain injuries, which have left him wholly dependent on other people for all the activities of daily living.

"Not many years ago he would have died, and it is a testament to the people caring for him that he survived.

"He wasn't wearing a cycling helmet, but given the severity of the injury it wouldn't have made any difference.

"He has a degree of insight into his plight. If the question is: Does he get anything out of life? Then the answer is 'yes, for certain'".

Before the accident Mr Hadden was on the equivalent of an �80,000 per annum salary as a finance director for farm management company Booker Farming before the tragedy.

'Congratulate the Haddens'

Mr Justice Wright, approving the deal, called it "a generous settlement."

"This is a huge amount, if not the largest, then certainly close to the maximum.

"Many of us don't have very much concept of the upheaval and deprivation that a catastrophe of this kind brings to the family of the injured party.

"I congratulate the Hadden family, and particularly his wife Elizabeth, for the way they have bourne the huge burden they have had to live with for the last five years. I offer the family my very best wishes for the future."

Mr Hadden's wife Elizabeth said afterwards: "We would like to thank the British Cycling Federation. David was a member, and without their legal helpline we would have been unable to bring this litigation."

Mr Norris said that the money would go towards Mr Hadden's future care, beginning with the new specially adapted home in Edinburgh.