Wear the right gear....

Lutin

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Wrong-lane driver broke biker's back in high-speed crash

A driver who veered into the wrong lane at 70mph before colliding head-on with a motorcyclist has been jailed for 16 months.

The Subaru of Florian Pratt, 41, rounded a blind bend on Mortimer Road near Sheffield before colliding with the 35-year-old biker, throwing him high into the air.

The motorcyclist, who suffered a broken back, wrist and sternum, was left with life-changing injuries but police say he was saved by the protective gear, including an air bag suit, he was wearing.


Warning - the video in the story does show the crash. But as shown in the video the rider wanted the footage to be released.
 

austin

Well-Known Member
I watched about 20 seconds and couldn’t bear to watch the rest. Horrible horrible stuff but I think just bad luck all round. Sure it was crappy driving but a second or two either way for the biker or the driver and it would be nothing but a close thing. If your number’s up, it’s up.
 

soho

Well-Known Member
My best mate hit a car head on, just south of Ainsa in Spain. He was just 200 metres behind me but I never noticed for a few miles because of my focus on the road at speed.We always ride/rode with the intention of rapid progress. When I got back to the scene all the emergency services were with him. He was conscious........just.
20 stone in weight he had flown some 40 feet over the top of the car
They treated him in the road for a good 30 minutes. I took a load of photo's in that time for insurance purposes. Once stabilised he was taken to Barbastro Hospital. When I got there with Johnny B (three of us riding together to Malaga). It was all very sombre at the little hospital, and we were received into a small room, where they informed us he had not survived. The last thing I had said to him was - Steve, we'll see you half an hour.
To this day I've never shown anyone those photo's. and I've never been able to watch any kind of accident footage since.

Funny thing is I had a bit of a nasty one myself a while back (surviving obviously !) and it has never put me of riding..............I just can't watch other people getting taken out though. When I unavoidably saw 58 taken out I was literally sick.
 

Rubberchicken

Well-Known Member
I think what mostly saves you if you get hit head on at 70 mph is blind bloody luck. No amount of gear will save you from an impact like that...

My little T-bone steak of 5 years hence wasn't anywhere near that speed and I'm pretty sure if it had been a Transit van instead of a Fiat 500 I'd not have been typing this.

Soho: After the first one I was gagging to get back on. After the second one a year and a half later I nearly threw in the towel, the only thing stopping me was basically that I'd just finished rebuilding and upgrading the bloody bike just the way I wanted it, no way I was going to flog it with 2k miles on it. But indeed, I've gone right off crash videos or reports. Too close for comfort.
 
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