All I remember is that about a week ago, I left my house on my Triumph Bonneville T120. I remember leaving home and then filling up at the petrol station. Then I remember riding up into the hills near where I live (about 20 miles away), stopping in a layby and taking my helmet and gloves off, whilst still sitting on the bike.
The plan was to get a cool photo with the sun going down in the background. Thereafter, I do not remember anything else until I woke up in hospital four days (I think) later. The Police came to see me and told me another biker thankfully found me and my bike lying in the layby (with the gloves and helmet on the floor) and called an ambulance.
Apparently I was unconscious. As I could not help the Police with what happened, they didn’t really see what they could do to help and left me a card saying to call if anything came back to me. And that was that. I am still lying in hospital with a smashed pelvis (now full of metalwork), a broken spine in four places and a head injury. As for the bike, my mate kindly rescued it with his van from the recovery yard. He’s not into bikes himself so naturally he does not know what he’s looking at (although he said the rear wheel and back end perhaps looks twisted).
The way the Police were questioning me, I think they thought I may have just fallen over on my own. I don’t think I did and can only hypothesise that someone may have hit me from the rear and then driven off, but I genuinely don’t know, and I can’t prove that, let alone bring a case against the unknown driver. Do you have any ideas?
Answer
My word you have taken a tumble. Firstly, I wish you a speedy recovery. Bikes can be fixed or replaced, but people are not so lucky.
As for bringing a case, you have some hurdles to overcome, but it may not be impossible. First things first, I am not a doctor (I will come back to that in a moment) but I would be surprised if you could have suffered such serious injuries if you had fallen off your bike sideways in a layby. Instead, it sounds like your injuries have resulted from a high-energy impact, i.e., like you have been hit from the rear by a vehicle. To aid in evidencing this is what happened, you are going to need an expert report from an orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in trauma.
In simple terms, if s/he advises that in their experience and on the balance of probabilities these types of injuries could only come from being hit from behind by a vehicle (rather than from falling over), then you can put your claim to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). The MIB deals with claims involving uninsured and untraced drivers.
They effectively step in as the insurer as a last resort. Also I strongly advise you do not let your Triumph disappear off to your insurers/ repairers, etc., as you need to get that inspected for damage. Hopefully the back end/wheel, etc., is damaged as this will further evidence your hypothesis of a rear-end hit and run.
Lastly, this claim is likely to get technical so make sure you get a specialist personal injury solicitor who can get your evidence in order.
Andrew Prendergast
More Bikes – July 2023
