The family of great-grandfather who died after being struck by a car said it 'breaks their hearts' to know he was left 'begging for help' for hours at the roadside waiting on paramedics.
George Ian Stevenson, 86, passed away the day after the accident on Wednesday March 2.
He was hit by a Red Citreon C2 near his Wrexham home just after 7.30pm while heading along High Street in Johnstown, Wales Online reports.
His wife Sylvia says she has been left with the painful last memory of her late husband lying helpless on the roadside.
Now, his family are campaigning for major improvements to be made to ambulance services, with a petition they set up having garnered almost 5,000 signatures already.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Stevenson's devastated relatives said the first 999 call was made at 7.31pm, but said the ambulance did not arrive until 11.37pm.
His granddaughter, Ellie Williams said on the night of the accident, it was raining, freezing and foggy.
"Left there for four hours, begging for help, waiting for help. And that makes us so sad," she told the BBC.
"A hard-working man who has paid his taxes all his life and paid into the system has been let down when he's needed them the most, and I just can't quite comprehend what has happened to him."
The 32-year-old said her grandfather was conscious and in pain while he waited, but seemed OK. But after the ambulance arrived, she said the retired undertaker, lorry driver and mechanic went into cardiac arrest and later died.
"The one thing that breaks my heart more than anything is knowing by the time that the ambulance did arrive, was he still aware?" she said.
The family, who live a few miles from Wrexham Maelor Hospital, said the ambulance came from Dolgellau in Gwynedd, more than an hour away.
The Welsh Ambulance Service is looking into the incident but said that at the time of the call, all its vehicles were already committed to other patients.
Two off-duty paramedics stopped to help but were reluctant to move him in case they caused further injury.
His widow, Sylvia Stevenson, told the BBC she was "sad to lose him like that" adding that he was "so healthy".
"It makes me feel terrible," she said.
"What on earth is happening to our country, the NHS? It's North Wales [that] seems to be the worst place."
She said people were "waiting hours" for ambulances and "nobody comes to them".
She said at the moment her memory of her husband was of him lying in the road.
Mr Stevenson was described as a "peaceful person" who "loved his family life."
The family's petition states: "The wait on ambulances is becoming a matter of life or death and something drastically needs to change, it’s happening all too often in the North Wales area.
"Paramedics go to work to help the people most in need and they are being prevented from doing this as there are no ambulances available and even when getting patients to the hospitals they are queued up waiting outside as there is no beds for patients.
"We are in 2022, there are people dying due to the waiting times of ambulances and the lack of beds. We need to do something about this together."
North Wales Live report that Welsh Ambulance Service operations director Lee Brooks said it was working to establish "the full sequence of events," and would contact Mr Stevenson's family.
Mr Brooks said: "What we can say at this early stage is that at the time of this call, all of our ambulance vehicles were already committed to other patients in the community or at hospitals, where handover delays in north-east Wales were especially difficult on the evening of 2 March."
An inquest into Mr Stevenson's death was opened on Monday and has been adjourned to a date yet to be fixed.
A provisional cause of death was given as severe chest injuries due to a road traffic collision.
North Wales Police have confirmed they arrested the driver of the Citroen and he has since been released under investigation while enquiries continue.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
