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Tory health spokesman involved in fatal crash with motorcyclist

Matthew Beard
Tuesday 16 July 2002 00:00 BST
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The shadow Health Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, described yesterday how he battled in vain to save a motorcyclist who smashed through the windscreen of his car in a road accident.

The head-on collision happened near Bristol at the weekend when a high-performance motorbike, ridden by a man aged 25, veered onto the wrong side of the road after taking a bend at high speed.

The impact was so violent that the helmet of the motorcyclist, Gary Warner, from Pensford near Bristol, was smashed. Paramedics took him to Bristol Royal Infirmary where he died from his head injuries on Sunday.

Dr Fox was left with whiplash, cuts and bruises, but may have been saved by the driver's airbag.

The Tory MP had to be freed from the wreckage of his car by another motorist, but used his medical skills to try to save the victim in the 20 minutes before paramedics arrived.

He said: "The rider was badly injured and, along with other motorists, we did everything we could until the paramedics arrived. Everything possible medically was done at the roadside to assist the young man. The fact that this proved unsuccessful is a tragic waste of a young life."

Dr Fox had been driving home on the A368 towards Bristol on Saturday evening when he saw the motorbike coming towards him. The MP for Woodspring had just dropped off his godson after a visit to Thorpe Park in Surrey and was returning to his home in Bishop Sutton, Somerset, when he approached the bend at about 8pm.

He said: "It is every driver's nightmare to meet a vehicle coming towards you out of control in the same lane. I saw a motorcycle approaching me after travelling around a bend and it seemed to drift onto my side of the road.

"It just missed the Volvo in front before crashing into my car. There was absolutely nothing I could do to avoid him."

Avon and Somerset police said the politician had passed a breath test for alcohol and said that, unless a full investigation proved otherwise, they considered the crash to be a "tragic accident".

Bruce McColl, the driver of the Volvo ahead of Dr Fox said: "We were all very shaken."

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