South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Went down to Bridge this dinner-time, then after watching the start of the GP decided to head West on the A30 to come home via Okehampton.
Anyway found the A30 completely blocked ( both lanes stopped ) so made my way slowly through the traffic for about a mile ..............and there at the front of it all was a fellow biker laying motionless in the middle of the road surrounded by car drivers. quite a horrific sight!!!
Apparently ( some witnesses told me ) he was following a Nissan Qashqai at about 70 MPH which had four bikes strapped on the back when they just suddenly ALL 'fell off' giving the rider absolutely no chance to avoid an inevitable crash.
Luckily, one of the car drivers was a nurse who knew what to do, and after about ten minutes, the Police, Ambulance and fire brigade arrived to take over.
The air ambulance also soon arrived and landed in the road and after about half an hour took off again with the rider aboard.
I diid overhear the paramedic radio the hospital saying the rider was called "Steve Edwards" ( I think??) who was either 39 or 35 ( couldn't quite hear which?)......he was riding a Kawasaki ZX-9R V-Reg in Green..........it had PGH ( Torquay) stickers on it , so I'm guessing he was local, and that probably known by a few of you ?????.
I'm quite shaken up by it and had a sad ride home to Bideford.
Please, if any of you DO know him, I need to know if he's OK??
Thank [censored] he had ALL the correct gear on ( leathers, boots, good gloves etc ) so at least he stood a better chance than some recently.
And it was good to see plod taken the offending Qashqai driver into their patroll car where they took all his details etc...hopefully he'll get done for causing it all..... his missus told me that they only bought the bike rack yesterday and spent 45mins this morning fixing it and the bikes to the car ( I told her she obviously should have spent a bit longer!!!!)

Brings it home a bit don't it

hope he os ok!

thats crazy and makes you thinks, hope the guys ok and makes a full recovery,be interesting to see if anyone knows him and how he is

hope he is ok.

bet he gets told off for riding too close tho.

hope the car driver gets a shed load of points and a big fine

bet the car driver gets away and im sure the biker was observing the 2 second rule but how are you supposed to predict a 4 bikes on a rack falling off the back of a car.

Best wishes to the rider - hope he's doing ok


Driving up the middle lane of the M5 north of Bridgwater a few weeks weeks ago, the car in front suddenly swerved, and I found myslef staring at a large lump in the middle of my lane fortunately it was reasonable quiet, so I went into the outside lane and found myself passing a stack of three bikes , then noticed a renault scenic on the hard-shoulder with one bike hanging off the back of a carrier ..... Unfortunately for them the Artic lorry following me wasn't able to swerve so well and ran over the back of the bikes - he pulled over in control, but they won't be riding those bikes again

Deej - judging by how keen they are to prosecute nowadays, I very much doubt the driver will get away without prosecution ....... the real issue is, will the punishment fit the crime

nope the punishment wont fit the crime

saw in todays WMN that hes okay and in a stable condition at derriford

deej wrote:nope the punishment wont fit the crime

saw in todays WMN that hes okay and in a stable condition at derriford

Thank gawd for that!!!!!!!!!!! was getting a bit ( a lot actually) worried.
If you look at the number of views this thread has had ( 239 so far), but with nobody able to shed light on the guy's condition, I was wondering what was happening........................thanks for the 'good' news.

The Express & Echo had an article and featured more on the "chaos" the accident caused, than the accident itself

Perhaps it's the way I read it, but they said "the motorcyclist drove into the objects on the road" like it was his fault Nothing was said of what action was taken against the motorist .....

Hope he gets well soon.

Dunno why but lately I worry wehn behind cars with cycles on the back or with stuff on the roof rack and have started hanging back. Unfortunatly it seems I'm not paranoid.

im scared behind anything else on the road, i hate to have my views obscured and hate tourists who have no idea of where theyre going.its no wonder im turning to trackdays for fun and relaxation

it wasnt a big write up in WMN but it was enough to say he was okay and not critical and thats the main thing

The rider's posted a letter in MCN today, sounds up-beat.

glad the dude is ok,,,was following a car with one of them top box thingys on down the M4 at 8am monday morning,, suddenly lid lifts up and i was bombarded with folding chairs, airbeds, sleeping bags etc,, thankfully i was in the car, after slowing down and moving over, the whole lid lifted off and hit a car in the outside lane...luckily every one managed to come to a halt with no crashes...but how dangerous is that, anyone on a bike wouldn't have stood a chance,, the driver of the car had to be chased and stopped by another motorist..he had no idea.. !!!
Ride safe.... x

Hi, just received an email from the guys at MCN pointing to this forum (which I didnt know existed). I was that guy getting up close and personal with the A30 tarmac. I gotta tell you, it hurt, a lot! I remember seeing the bikes come off and thinking, oh sh*t. By all accounts I did a great job avoiding all but the last one which face planted me in the carriage way. The next thing I remember was looking down the road at my bike and wondering why I couldnt breathe. Thought I was gonna die, honestly. Only thing that kept me going was the lovely Florence Nightingale who helped me- lovely knees by the way Didnt even enjoy my first helicopter trip due to being nailed to a spine board! Anyway, came out of hospital on Tue (I think) after a couple of days with my own morphein drip which was cool. Got a broken shoulder, couple of broken ribs and possibly cracked hip, oh and a gouge in my knee the size of a tetley tea bag any school boy would be proud of lol. At home in bed now on about 12 or 14 tablets a day which aint good and Im out with the fairies most of the time! Seen the bike and it faired better than me. The usual indicators gone and some serious gouges on the fairing panels. The worst bit is the engine side cover which ground through which i think has emptied the oil which is never a good sign. Bit gutted about my brand new HJC carbon lid which got pretty ground out and also my new cordura jacket which the air ambulance crew cut into three, bless em! My leather trousers have got a nice tea bag shaped hole in em, but I dont mind cos that leather is still in my knee Think the bike is a write off as is the kit so been spending my time on Ebay looking for another bike. Hayabusa this time I think. Wanted to go down the bike night last night but er indoors wouldnt let me just because I cant walk for long swizz! Still got quite a bit of pain and some breathing difficulty but on the mend hopefully. Would like to give a big thanks to you all for all your well wishes and especially Dave for starting this in the first place. Hopefully meet up with some of you soon at a bike night. Thanks again guys, appreciate it. Ride safe. Steve Edwards

Good to hear you are home and on the mend