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26th Aug 2016

Richard Branson narrowly avoids death following a high speed bike crash

Carl Anka

Sir Richard Branson has described how narrowly close to death he came following a high speed bike accident in the British Virgin Islands.

The billionaire was in the middle of a training cycle run with two of his children, Sam and Holly, when he hit a speed bump and crashed head first into the road.

“I was heading down a hill towards Leverick Bay when it suddenly got really dark and I managed to hit a “sleeping policeman” hump in the road head on,” he wrote in a post titled “My Life Flashed Before my Eyes”.

“The next thing I knew, I was being hurled over the handlebars and my life was literally flashing before my eyes. I really thought I was going to die.

I went flying head-first towards the concrete road, but fortunately my shoulder and cheek took the brunt of the impact.”

Sir Branson was quickly flown to a Miami hospital where he was found to have a cracked cheek and torn ligaments.

The 66 year old added that if he was not wearing a helmet he would have been surely killed, writing, “I really couldn’t believe I was alive, let alone not paralysed.”

But he seems to be taking his injury in stride, adding, “My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward,’ he wrote. ‘All you have to do is get back up and try again.”

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