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group meeting at Channels in Oct I was telling Gary Baldwin & Mark Edwards about this, since I know them both personally, about this, & Gary said it definitely doesn’t pay to hack off other road users when you overtake them since you never know when you will want them as your friends!!! Gary asked me how long I’d been riding bikes & remarked that since it had taken me 45 years to have my first serious bike accident there was no reason why it wouldn’t take another 45 to have the next one!!!!!!! The two occupants of the car I’d overtaken turned out to be my independent witnesses to what happened next. An oncoming car with an elderly couple were looking for somewhere for a picnic & they spotted a field entrance on my side of the road and according to the occupants of the car I’d overtaken it simply pulled across the road into my path giving me zero time to react. I imagine judging by the state of my one piece leathers that I fell off the bike on my left side and the bike carried on because the recovery firm told me that they had to dig it out of the hedge. I have absolutely no memory of the impact or how I parted company from my bike. At some point I obviously passed out but how long I was unconscious for I have no idea. My non - professional explanation is that the human body is a very clever piece of kit & my brain decided that it was a good idea to “close me down”. When I came to, on reflection I’d been put in the recovery position on my left side, my helmet, glasses & gloves had been removed & the traffic police were on scene. It was pretty obvious from the position of my right foot that I had a broken leg and nothing happened when I tried to move my foot. Amazingly I was in no pain. It later transpired that a passing doctor had stopped at the scene & straightened out my leg to improve the blood flow otherwise that could have had life changing consequences. My 1 piece leathers made for me by the late Mike Willis in 1990 undoubtedly did their job because the ONLY injury I sustained was a compound open fracture to my tibia & fibia – the lower bones of the leg and nothing else – no scratches or bruises and I didn’t have armour or a back protector. An open fracture is where the ends of the bones exit through the skin but thankfully due to my leathers I was unaware of that at the time. The traffic cop said I’d been so lucky – they just could not believe I’d got away with so little injury. I told him my house keys were in a pocket in the fairing but he said they couldn’t get the ignition key out but he recovered the rest of them along with my rucksack that was strapped to the bike. I also told him where my wallet was in my rucksack & said there was a card with the Bikers Retreat phone number & could he call them to say I wasn’t going to make it. I live alone so there was none there to call. The paramedics apologised but told me they’d have to cut my leathers to release my legs. They also cut the laces and the goretex tongue of my boots. I was taken initially to Gloucester hospital where I vaguely remember going through one of those scanners like
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