A CINDERFORD motorcyclist reckons he’s lucky to be alive after a hair-raising early morning incident on his way to work in Ross-on-Wye.

Rob Jones wants his experience to act as a warning to the many motorcyclists and tourists that will be passing through the Forest this summer. He also wants to thank the lorry driver who rushed to his aid and the ‘fantastic nurses’ at the local A&E.

It all began when a car driver ‘in a hurry’ pulled out into the path of a fully-laden lorry, forcing it to swerve across the road, just as Rob on his motorbike was appearing around the corner.

Rob instinctively slammed on the brakes and the front of the bike slid away.

“We ended up hitting the kerb and I found myself bouncing along the ground like a daddy longlegs against a closed window’ before coming to rest in the road with my rucksack over my head and my pride scattered in my path,” he said.

Rob immediately got to his feet, thinking that while the bike was missing some of its vital parts, he had escaped unscathed – and he saw the lorry driver had stopped and was sprinting back to towards him.

“He explained what had happened and asked how I was, how I was getting to work, if he could help, how the bike was - all the questions that the car driver should have been asking instead of driving into the sunrise without a care in the world.

“I explained that some mates from work would be passing and that I could get a lift with them and he helped me push the bike to a safe place. And that was that…or so I thought.”

But after being picked up and heading into work, the pain in his leg started taking hold.

“My supervisor thought I didn’t look too good and arranged to take me home. By this point the pain was getting much worse so my dad drove me to the local hospital, where the nurse took a look and told me they were calling an ambulance to take me to GRH (the big boys’ hospital) because they thought I’d broken my femur.

“They managed, however, to get me x-rayed on site and discovered that there were no fractures, just a lot of tendon and ligament damage. So now I’m stuck at home, strapped up like Robocop - and all because some idiot thought being five minutes faster to work was more important than my life.

“They tell you to ‘dress for the slide not the ride’ wearing your padded kit, but while that helps against gravel rash it does nothing to protect you from bouncing down the road at speed.

“Fortunately my bike will eventually return in one form or another, as will I. But hopefully there’s a moral in all this for bikers and motorists alike…”