Well, what can I say?

Soldato
Joined
28 Feb 2006
Posts
5,000
Location
No longer riding an Italian
After the elation of getting my knee down on the 26th of July, thread here clicky, the 27th ended at the total opposite end of the scale:

A MOTORCYCLIST suffered minor injuries in a collision with a car on Cirencester Way in Swindon.

The 27-year-old local man suffered the injuries after his silver Kawasaki ZXR collided with a Ford Galaxy at about 1.30pm on a roundabout.

The motorcyclist was travelling around the Cirencester Way roundabout, near Lidl, as the car was travelling towards Gypsy Lane, when they collided.

PC Chris Penny at the road-policing unit said: “It is a minor road traffic collision involving a motorcycle and Ford Galaxy which has left the scene.

“The motorcyclist sustained minor injuries while the driver of the car was shaken but uninjured.”

The road was cleared at about 2.10pm after a Titcombe’s Recovery vehicle removed the motorcycle from the scene

crashdisplayde1.jpg
:(

That’s me in the bottom right-hand side of the picture, and despite the fact I think I was knocked unconscious after impact, I still recall what happened, assisted with the medium of paint, I shall explain:

crashyy6.jpg


I had approached this roundabout from the bottom of the picture, in the right-hand lane, with the plan of going straight over an turning right at another roundabout further up the dual carriageway - all of which is a 40 limit, you can also see the lane I am in is marked right or straight.

On approach I had really good visibility ahead and to the right, there was nothing to give way to, so I dropped from 3rd to 2nd and allowed the bike to engine brake instead.

At the red marker I recall checking my speedo and seeing 35mph, bear in mind everything still looked clear, I still wasn't on the throttle either, and the bike was still slowing itself down.

Now the stuff hits the fan, this part is a little sketchy I'm afraid, but I do recall the scary bit! I was either about to mirror check on my left, or had done so and was about to signal when I see the front wing of a car race into my view on the left!

All I remember is thinking “oh ****” then hearing the bang. The blue marker is where I think the impact happened - I had no chance to react and didn't get as far as pulling the brake lever.

I came to surrounded by the emergency services, I was being bombarded with questions about how I was feeling, asked to describe how parts my body felt; mainly the spine and neck, but I was able to feel things that weren’t right, so relayed this to them.

After they decided I hadn’t broken my back or neck the helmet came off, I was still convinced this was a dream and was running on auto pilot somewhat, but they still needed to work out what state I was in so kit was undone and with my garbled descriptions, they felt around.

I wanted this to all be over, this dream was a bad one; a nightmare maybe.

The medics reeled off a list of injuries, which were sadly all in medical terms, so meant nothing to me, but I knew for a fact my left leg was feeling odd, so wasn’t looking forward to a cast.

Injuries assessed I was hauled onto a spinal board and loaded into the ambulance, only to be visited by a traffic cop seconds later to see if I could provide a breath test – after two attempts I think I did it. The medics then debated the route and I was off to GWH in Swindon; funny really, as I had been using the roundabout near there that very morning – my mate (also in the picture) got his knee down too.

We arrive at A&E and I heard my mum’s voice asking if they had me in the ambulance – this was the third they had asked, so I guess the old saying is true. I remember being whisked past my mum and dad, and I gave them the report of “just a few broken bones”, before I was taken in to be worked on.

The next few hours were awash with adrenalin and morphine as I was taken for numerous scans, the end result being my list of injuries:

Fractured left collar bone
Punctured left lung
Two cracks to the left of my pelvis
Snapped left forearm

I spent just over a week in hospital under intensive care, but after making good progress with physiotherapy, I was allowed home – the next 5 weeks or so I cannot put any weight on my left leg, so that’ll be fun.

Today I dedicate my time to catching up with the state of my case with lawyers – as the guy in the people carrier made a completely illegal move on a roundabout in front of about 5 witnesses I should hopefully get to claim off of him.

Anyway, its taken hours to type this one handed, and I need rest, so I’m off.

Scort.
 
Last edited:
Thank you all for the comments, they are appreciated.

I cannot wait to get back on a bike, this will not change how I feel; sure the injuries may affect how I ride, but it won’t keep me off.

I have heard from an 'internal police source' ;) that it was very unorthodox for them to breathalyse me like that; it should have been done at the hospital by blood test, so god knows why they did it.

To answer the question as to whether I would meet the driver - sure, I don't feel any hatred; I would just like to know what the hell he was thinking.

As for walking, I was told it could deform my pelvis, however, I can walk with the aid of a crutch, so it's not too bad, just hard work :P

Scort.
 
Once again, thanks for the comments guys :)

I have only heard second hand info about my bike, but the garage that have it say 80% of bikes they have in are written off - I'd be sad if it is, but I can get an 07/08 R6 then.

I thought the guy had come from the road on the left - he seemed to come into my view very quick, but after speaking to my mate, who was following on his bike, the guy was alongside me.

The whole event was so surreal; it took me a good while before I landed back in reality, then a further few hours to recall where it had actually happened.

It's not put me off of biking in any shape or form; I am aching just as much to get back into the saddle, as I am with the injuries suffered. But I know how lucky I am to not only be here to tell the story, but with my body still in working order, albeit slower at the moment.

As for what the guy did, I can only guess, I have been told he was alongside me, and then just hit across to turn right, all I remember is just seeing his car come into view from nowhere :(

You probably did see us whatleytom, it was becoming a regular area to practice, more and more bikers there too.

As for a claim against the council, it did cross my mind, more so as there are no clear lane markings on the roundabout itself.

I have a stack of lawyer stuff to go through now – expect a new thread in GD shortly :o

Scort.
 
Back
Top Bottom