“We should have been dead”
For experienced motorcyclists John and Della, a routine trip to London changed their lives when they were hit by a van which fled the scene and left them for dead on the motorway.
I didn’t see it coming. It was completely out of the blue. It was like I was in some otherworld state, tumbling around. And then felt myself hit the floor.
The van had been travelling at around 90 mph in the outside lane, when it cut inside to undertake another vehicle.
The driver lost control and collided with John and Della, sending both crashing to the ground.
Della recalls the immediate impact of the collision: “I remember coming to on the hard shoulder and somebody holding my helmet and I couldn’t hear – I’d had a brain bleed I know that now – I could see the person’s lips moving but I couldn’t hear anything.”
“We should have been dead,” John adds. “As straightforward as that.”
Della suffered two broken legs and a bleed on the brain. John’s right leg was so badly injured that amputation was a real possibility.
“When it came to saving the leg, it wasn’t just a question of putting it back there was an immense amount of plastic surgery,” John explains. Multiple, complex operations were followed by eight weeks in hospital.
Even after leaving hospital, the impact of the collision touched every aspect of their lives. They were forced to accept that the future they had planned had completely changed. “All our plans were destroyed on that day by one person’s reckless act,” Della says.
As they adjusted to life after the accident, MIB was able to help them navigate what came next.
“If MIB hadn’t been there, there were a lot of things that were essential to John’s recovery that we wouldn’t have had any idea were there or how to get them,” Della explains. A key part of John’s recovery was the provision of a bespoke boot, which helped restore mobility and quality of life.
“MIB had the knowledge to put us on the right path,” says Della. “The post-traumatic shock side of it was more evident to me. I struggled to drive the M20 past where the accident happened. I did have six weeks’ worth of therapy, which was very well organised for me by MIB.”
“It’s purely because an organisation exists to collect and manage that money that makes situations like this lot more palatable,” John adds. “The icing on the cake in many respects is that they’re not just doling out money, they’re doling out help and advice as well.”
But Della and John are still living with the very human cost of uninsured and hit-and-run driving: “I will never forget. And if I ever had the opportunity to meet that person, I would like them to know that eight, 10, 20 years down the line I will never forget what they did to us.”
