Partners in life and at their Wollongong law firm, Tim Horsley's daily morning ride was the only time he spent apart from his wife of 23 years. It was 7am. A tracking app on Ms Johnson's phone rendered him as a blue dot on Springhill Rd, Coniston. But the dot was still.

"I just had a feeling, so i jumped in my car and drove to the blue dot, feeling sicker and more terrified by the moment," Ms Johnson said, in a recorded video statement played to Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday. "And as I approached I saw the road closed. I saw all the police cars. And so I parked randomly and I ran across the road like a mad woman... And then I saw his crumpled bike."

Mr Horsley suffered critical injuries when his bike was hit from behind by a Holden Rodeo duel cab ute driven by a 52-year-old Wollongong man, Randall Gordon Stone.

The Thirroul grandfather-of-nine died in hospital after his family spent four days keeping agonising watch at his bedside.

"I played his beloved Beethoven to him and prayed," Ms Johnson said. "I talked to him, I held his hand and his face and I hoped against hope. I made all the horrific decisions they [clinicians] asked me to make. I had panic attacks at the hospital. I watched my life as I knew it slide away, and it's never returned, and it never will ... And then they told me his beautiful brain was so damaged it was incompatible with life.

"I gave them permission to take his organs. These are not conversations you should be having about a strong, healthy 52-year-old man, who was the centre of his family's world, and who just went for a bike ride.

"And when they turned off the machines I lay on the bed with him and I held him and I kissed him as he died surrounded by our children. I cannot describe the pain."

Stone bent his head and wiped away tears repeatedly throughout the eight-minute address, described by Magistrate Gabriel Fleming as "a beautiful and very moving tribute".

Stone was looking at the monitor as Ms Johnson addressed him directly: "out of the faith that I hold, I forgive you," she said.

"But I also know that justice demands that a price be paid, and I don't apologise for wanting you to pay a heavy price for killing Tim and for causing such trauma and ongoing suffering in my family. You'll never be able to do anything to bring us any comfort for the horror that you have brought us."

Police prosecutor Sean Thackray pressed for a full-time jail sentence, noting Mr Horsley was wearing a helmet and a high-visibility shirt and was correctly riding close the gutter, in lane one of two, when he was struck.

Travelling directly behind him was a red hatchback, then Stone in his ute.The red hatch changed lanes before Stone directly hit the back of Mr Horsley's bike, throwing him onto a grass nature strip.

"Had he [Stone] been paying the appropriate level of care and attention, he should easily have seen him," Sgt Thackray said.

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But defence lawyer Graeme Morrison said the collision was the result of "a fraction of a second [spent] not looking."

"It's a situation that could happen to any person going about their normal business," he said.

Mr Morrison said Stone had failed to offer an apology to Mr Horsley's family until now, only due to his legal advice. Through lawyers, his letter of apology made its way to the family on Tuesday.

Stone was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, to be served in the community by way of an intensive corrections order, including 120 hours of community service.

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