Guy Martin says he got off 'lightly' thanks to his safety equipment
Guy Martin says he owes his life to the safety equipment he was wearing during his high speed crash in the Senior TT.
Martin was battling for the lead on lap three of the final race of the 2010 Isle of Man TT when he crashed heavily at Ballagarey. His Wilson Craig Honda Superbike burst into flames after crashing, while Martin slid down the road.
The 29-year-old was airlifted to hospital amid fears he had suffered severe injuries. Fortunately it was quickly reported that Martin had suffered bruising to his lungs and minor fractures in his upper back, but was otherwise in good condition. He returned home after a few days in Noble’s Hospital in the Isle of Man and is already talking about his racing comeback – with the Southern 100 on July 12 his target.
Dainese, which provides Martin’s safety equipment and leathers, released photographs of what he was wearing during the crash.
Reflecting on his horrendous smash, the Kirmington star said he realises he owes the fact he survived with relatively minor injuries to the quality of his safety gear.
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He said:
“I’ve only been wearing a chest protector for about a year and a half, but I’ll tell you what, I’d not be here if I’d not been wearing it. I mean, I punctured a lung with it in, imagine if I’d not been using it.”
“Then there’s my back protector - the impact was that hard I’ve still got bruising on my back that matches the line of the back protector. I’ve broken two vertebrae with it in. It doesn’t bear thinking what would have happened if I’d not been wearing the armour.”
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Martin added:
“We’re talking about a 170mph crash. I’d say I got off lightly. The leathers never wore through – it’s just the heat that’s caused the abrasions.”
“Considering the speed of the crash, the helmet was in pretty good shape, though it’s scuffed from every angle where I was rolling around!”
“I’ve got no marks on my hands at all, and my boots were perfect too.”
He also confirmed he wasn’t using Dainese’s revolutionary airbag system, which he has been helping the Italian company develop for race and road use. However, Martin said the information gathered during the crash will help develop the D-Air system even more.
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He said:
“I wasn’t using the D-Air airbag system, but I was carrying a computer in the hump. It had GPS and was logging acceleration to get some more data before we use the airbag system on the roads.”