How did I live through that?
Biker cheats death in hill smash
A MAN survived a horror crash which left his motorbike looking like a crushed tin can.
Mark Hepburn’s black and orange £16,000 KTM RC8 racing motorcycle was reduced to scrap following the terrifying smash.
The 42-year-old was catapulted through the air when his bike struck a roadside barrier on a steep hill.
He was also left drenched in highly flammable petrol following the accident last Sunday on a stretch of the A83 between Arrochar and Inveraray, Argyll.
Mark, a company director from Paisley, Renfrewshire, said: “I can’t believe I survived.
“As I careered through the air I honestly thought I was going to die. I assumed my moment had come. A car had pulled out in front of me as I was overtaking and there was nowhere to go.
“As I landed, I realised I was still alive and tried to get up.
“I will never know how I managed to stop at the barrier and not be crashed hundreds of feet to my death down the hillside.”
His friend Gerry Sharpe, with whom he had been travelling, managed to halt oncoming traffic. The ordeal was far from over, however, as the petrol from Mark’s bike trickled dangerously towards him.
“The least spark from anywhere would have finished me off,” he recalls.
“But I couldn’t move in case I had broken my neck and risked paralysis.” Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance paramedics subsequently airlifted lucky-to-be-alive Mark to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
Accident and emergency specialists diagnosed a shattered right kneecap and badly injured ligaments in his left leg.
After undergoing surgery, Mark is now back home with his wife and sons Aiden, 14 and Ethan, nine.
Wendy, 40, has already told him his biking days are over.
“The bike’s insured and I have been informed that we are getting a new bathroom with the pay-out,” he smiled.
“I had a very lucky escape. Someone was looking after me that day.
“My boys are not getting on a bike, ever.
“I guess I was saved by my biker’s leathers and my crash helmet.”
“I have been on motorbikes since I was a teenager and was very confident and experienced.
“It was just an unpredictable event I couldn’t prevent.”