A MOTORCYCLIST has spoken of the devastating aftermath of being hit by a car.

Paul Thomas, 61, from Wallsend, was travelling from Keswick and Alston in April 2005, when he saw diesel on the road.

He said: “I went round a bend and saw the sand covering the diesel. I struggled to control it and it threw me over onto the other side of the road.

“There was a car coming round the corner on a tight bend and I hit the car like a bullseye head on. I fell straight across the car and smashed the car windscreen and went over the top.”

He broke his neck, two thumbs, and had a bleed on the brain and was put in a medically induced coma by The Great North Air Ambulance Service.

The father-of-one said: “I was put on drugs and the bleed went down after a couple of days.

“But for a long time I couldn’t do anything.

He eventually had neck fusion surgery which gave him a new lease on life.