Auckland teen thrown off motorbike at speed has lucky escape - Stuff

An Auckland teenager is lucky to be alive after taking a tumble from his motorbike, at speed, on a rural stretch of highway.

Josh McEwan had just sold his motorcycle and was taking it for one final ride, heading out with his father, when things went wrong.

"My dad got me up in the morning and said, 'Do you want to go for a last ride?' So it's pretty ironic," McEwan said.

McEwan, then 18, came off his bike while overtaking a slow-moving campervan in Glorit, near Kaipara, northwest of Auckland.

"He [the father] overtook a campervan and he gave me the all-clear. So I went around, but must have hit something and got the speed wobbles."

McEwan escaped the February 6 incident with a broken collarbone and a few scratches. He was taken to North Shore Hospital by the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

McEwan had to wait a painful two weeks before surgery to fix his badly broken collarbone, because of other scrapes near the bone.

The Browns Bay resident attributed his lucky escape to the safety gear he was wearing.

"I had full gear on, and quality stuff, not just jeans. The Kevlar jacket, pants and gloves. When the crash happened I sort of, when stuff goes wrong I think logically and don't get panicked. I kept my limbs close to me."

The now 19-year-old also came off his motorcycle and crossed the centre line and said he was lucky to have not hit a tree or oncoming car.

Karl Taylor, a chief paramedic with the rescue helicopter, attended the crash and agreed wearing the correct gear helped McEwan.

"I've been to some they have not been wearing the correct gear and have come off worse," Taylor said.

"The right gear can save your life."

Taylor said they were also aware that a broken collarbone could puncture the lung, which extends to that part of the chest.

McEwan has always loved riding motorbikes, since getting into it with his father around three years ago.

"I started off on the back of his. He'd ride me around then he bought a new one and gave me his old one. It was our thing."

The pair had ventured to Glorit, because it's a nice drive McEwan said.

Despite the crash McEwan said he wasn't put off motorcycles and was thinking of saving for a replacement.

"It's one of my passions. I love it so much," he said.

McEwan's story will feature in the television show Code1 on August 7, which raises awareness of the work the Auckland and Coromandel Westpac Rescue Helicopter does.