Motorcycle v U turning car

Jack’s was on his way home from work on his Kawasaki ZX9R, his pride and joy. The bike at the time was renowned for being the fastest bike on the road.

He had been travelling up hill on a dual carriageway and was just about to overtake a car on the inside lane when the car  U-turned across him. Jack did his best but hid the car.

What happened next, Jack can only guess. He woke up in hospital on a spinal board. He was told that he had suffered serious fractures and would have to undergo an emergency operation. He spent the following 3 days in Intensive Care. Jack had in fact suffered numerous injuries including post-traumatic amnesia due to a severe head injury, a hangman’s fracture, a fractured elbow, a heavily bruised abdominal wall and a ruptured aorta.

Despite all his injuries Jack made a good and quick recovery, returning to work a few months later. However he was not the same person after the accident.

One of the hardest things for Jack was the fact the crash affected his voice. One of his vocal chords had been paralysed which meant his voice was very weak and quiet. Adding to this his head injury which caused him to pronounce words incorrectly and left him with debilitating migraines life was far from back to normal. Sometimes the less obvious injuries have the greatest long term effect.

To make things worse the driver of the car had been uninsured which meant we had to pursue the case against the Motor Insurers Bureau. They argued that Jack should have been able to stop in time and that he was travelling too fast. This is a consistent argument against motorcyclists. The truth is a motorcycle is not seen, so the driver claims the bike must have been ridden too fast. I did not see you because you were going too fast does not make sense.

Mark Thompson has acted for many motorcyclists over the years. A bike is a great way to travel but do look out for them as the consequences of a collision can be awful.