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Amazing recovery after quad horror
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A BRITISH woman who suffered horrific injuries when she was run over on the street by a quad bike in Ayia Napa is gradually making a full recovery.
Holiday rep Siobhan McQuade, 21, was rushed to hospital with a fractured skull, a gash to the back of her head and bruising to her brain after a 17-year-old Israeli tourist lost control of his quad bike, skidded off the road and ploughed into her last month.
The incident, which happened in the centre of the resort, outraged locals who have constantly complained about reckless drivers on bikes and mopeds racing on the town’s roads.
McQuade astonished doctors by making an "exceptional" recovery, despite being left in a coma and undergoing emergency surgery.
“I have got a few broken bones, but I’m so grateful to be in one piece. I’m so lucky. I’m glad I don’t remember much because if I did I think it would be horrendous,” she said last week.
“I can just feel myself getting better every day now. It’s such a relief.”
The accident also left her with three large scars on the top of her head, as well as a broken collar bone and chest bone.
“All I can remember is trying to get up afterwards. Someone pulled the quad bike off me because it was literally pinning me to the ground. I wanted to stand up, but everyone was telling me ‘you’ve got to sit down’.”
McQuade, who has now returned to the UK, had been working in Ayia Napa for travel agent Thomson First Choice.
Police spokesman George Economou told the Sunday Mail that the teenage driver of the quad had not been drinking and was remanded in custody for three days and later fined for careless driving.
“He did have a valid licence and was fined 2,500 euros by the court for driving without due care, he is now back in Israel,” he said.
The crash comes amid growing concern among drivers about the safety of tourists riding quad bikes; every summer thousands of holidaymakers hire the four-wheeled vehicles, which are available across the island as a cheap means of transport.
However, recklessly driven quads have prompted many motorists to refuse to make journeys into Ayia Napa at night.
Mike Moorby from the Cyprus Advanced Driving and Road Safety Network, a body which advises and teaches professional drivers and instructors, says driving a quad bike properly takes training.
“They have quick acceleration, they just shoot off and that surprises many people who have never used them. Training is the key to road safety, but who is going to train a tourist to drive a bike?
“The sheer power and speed of them is dangerous wherever they are used.”
Unlike motorbikes and scooters, riders are not legally required to wear a helmet when on a quad bike, despite the vehicles having a top speed of 80 to 90 miles an hour.
Nearly a third of all road fatalities in Cyprus are motorcyclists or their passengers, and a quarter are under 25 years of age.
Most quad bike accidents involve the vehicle overturning - with excessive speed, inexperience and unsafe loads usually to blame.
