Motorcycle Accident Claim

Steve Skuse has won compensation for a motorcycle accident after being hit by a runaway coach wheel. Doctors feared they might have to amputate his leg.

After three operations and 11 months on crutches, the Swindon Harriers runner is nowhere near full health and he will require surgery again next year.

He now has a metal pin in his thigh.

The 45-year-old also needed a skin graft, which resulted in a six-month MRSA infection.

His motorcycle accident happened a year ago yesterday.

Steve was forced to give up his job and his wife Hazel, 43, also had to give up her full-time work at Honda to look after him.

Now, after a 12-month battle, they have finally found out he is entitled to compensation.

Steve, of Elmore, Eldene, said: "It's been a stressful year.

"It's been depressing at times, not being able to go out and run and do the things I did before. You do worry at times.

"It's ongoing. I don't know when I will be back at work."

Motorcycle accident compensation payout certain

Compensation is now a certainty after the coach company, which cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of a criminal offence at court.

The case is now going through the civil claims procedure, which will decide how much Steve is owed.

The accident happened when Steve was riding his Yamaha to the Coating Technology Company, in Wantage, where he worked.

"I saw a wheel on the white line coming towards me," he said.

'It's extremely frustrating not to be able to do any of the things I used to do.'

"Within a split second it hit me in the leg and took me off my bike.

"I ended up facing the way I had been coming and I looked down at my leg and saw it was broken."

Steve broke three bones in his right leg, one of them in two places.

The first operation at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford lasted seven hours and saved his leg.

He was in hospital for 22 days.

Steve, who last year ran 15 races for the Harriers, said: "I was running 30 miles a week but whether I will be able to run again I don't know."

He is also an amateur jockey and has been unable to race his horse, Paddy's Rice.

He has gone from going to all Swindon Town's games to making it to just four last season.

"It's mucked up all my hobbies," he said.

"It's extremely frustrating not to be able to do any of the things I used to do.

"My wife was worried because they thought they might have to amputate my leg. They didn't tell me.

"The surgeon Mark Deacon saved my leg. I owe him a lot."

Hazel said: "It's been a long old road with some tough times.

"At one point not long after, you think Is it ever going to change and get better?' "Obviously if he could get back to running that would be the ultimate, it would mean a lot to him."

If you or someone you know has been involved in a motorbike accident, we can help with a motorcycle accident claim.