Shane Byrne is a legend of British motorcycling despite never having been World Champion. In his record we find six BSB titles and 85 race victories, but he was also part of the MotoGP World Championship grid in the first half of the initial decade of the 21st century competing with Aprilia, Proton KTM and Honda Pons. In the same way he competed in the WSBK, achieving two victories and a podium there. By the way, that victory came as a guest driver at Brands Hatch.
But Shane Byrne’s career ended in an unglamorous way. Although 2018 was going to be the year in which the British driver hung up his monkey, an accident in turn three of the Snetterton circuit anticipated that process. And Byrne had to jump off his Ducati Panigale while driving at a speed close to 100 kilometers per hour, from there he began to slide across the grass before hitting a wall protected by tires after the escape route at a terminal speed of between 24 and 40 kilometers per hour.
Although the speed was reduced considerably, the injuries suffered by Shane Byrne were complicated and the medical report was chilling: bruises in both lungs and fractures in all the ribs, four vertebrae, the clavicle and the neck, which was fractured in two places.
Despite the severity of the accident and injuries, Shane Byrne was able to recover
Fortunately, and despite the hardness of the injuries and his rehabilitation, Byrne gradually recovered as he did not suffer brain or spinal injuries, and today he has a life that could be considered normal in terms of functionality. Even so, Shane Byrne decided to denounce the organizer of the championship and at the same time the owner of the Motor Sport Vision circuit and Motor Sport Vision Racing, as well as the Motorcycle Circuit Racing Control Board.
As could be seen, after the accident that area was protected against an airfence, but at the time of Byrne’s impact it was covered with tires. That is, instead of type A protection capable of absorbing impacts, they were type D, which aggravated Byrne’s injuries.
In the legal process, the representative of the accused, as reported by Rideapart, alleged that the protections were adequate and that the accident was “mainly due to Byrne’s driving” in reference to the fact that he had to jump off the motorcycle.
Luckily for Byrne, Judge Peter Blair ruled in favor of the pilot, stating that what happened was “a type of foreseeable incident in racing… (Byrne) did not suffer serious injuries when he jumped off his motorcycle and rolled into the barrier“, but added that it was “negligent not to have concluded that additional type ‘A’ protective devices were needed on the outer barrier of Turn 3”.
In this way, on this occasion the responsibilities will be cleared and Shane Byrne will receive financial compensation that has not been made public.
