Fan Injured After Motorcycle Fireball
Jul 08, 2008
AN elderly motorcycle club official and bike racing fan from Northern Ireland was critically injured when three motorbikes collided at a road race in the Republic.
Milton Thom, a 77-year-old spectator, from Cookstown, was burnt when ignited fuel landed on him after competitors crashed in the final race of the Skerries 100 in north Co Dublin.
The pensioner was rushed to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for treatment where staff said he was in a critical condition.
Mr Thom is the owner of the Royal Hotel in Cookstown and is also president of the Cookstown Motorcycle Club.
Thoms is a lifelong friend of the clerk of the course and former road racer Dubliner Francis Everard, and was watching the race from Everard’s garden which borders the course, when two riders collided. Parts of a racing machine cleared the safety bales in front of the garden and went on fire when Thoms was struck.
Sean Bissett, one of the leading motorcycling officials who was on the spot, said: “It really was a freak accident. We had the place well baled, but for some reason or other, one bike struck another and sailed over the protective fence.
Everard was too upset to speak about the accident, but some eyewitnesses said: “It was impossible to determine what actually happened for the bikes involved were going so quickly no one could say with any certainty as to whose fault it was.”
The bikes involved were ridden by Lincoln rider Gary Johnson and Dubliner Michael Weldon who both escaped with minor injuries.
Meanwhile Ryan Farquhar, who has been backed by Thoms over a period of time and is one of the leading riders at the Cookstown 100, was the man of the meeting after winning two races.
