Durham man left paralysed by motorbike crash calls for better road safety
Andy Bell was knocked off his bike by a car last May and is concerned about the 13% increase in motorbike accidents in the North East.
A Durham man who was left paralysed after being knocked of his motorbike says we should all be looking out for each other on the road.
Andy Bell was in an accident in May last year and says it's had a massive impact on his life.
He said: "It was a really nice sunny day and I'd been on my bike for about an hour.
"Unfortunately, I was hit in a collision with a car and the next thing I knew I was lying on my back, saying I can't feel my legs.
"The hobbies I used to do I no longer have the option of doing.
"There's a lot of things I have to reconsider when I go out, even to a restaurant or just to see friends, I have to consider the toilet facilities and the terrain.
"There's so much more to consider than people might realise unless you're in this situation."
The keen sports fan is now currently in rehabilitation and focusing on physiotherapy that could one day help him to walk again.
He's urging everyone who uses the roads to keep an eye out for each other, as it's revealed a biker dies in our region every month.
There's been a 13 per cent increase in the number of motorcycle accidents in our region, including Andy's crash in Chester-Le-Street.
County Durham came out as the hotspot for crashes, with Hartlepool being the safest area in the region.
Andy said: "You can be riding and driving as safe as possible and it's other users that determine the outcome of your destiny.
"My whole life has now been changed as a result of my incident."
He's behind a campagin by Road Safety GB North East, who want to prevent the number of motorcycle accidents growing any further.
Bike crashes peak between the months of March and October, with most fatalities involving bikes over 500cc.
Chairman Paul Watson said: “Casualties don't just happen, there's human error in about 95% of all casualties.
"If we can eliminate human error then we can certainly eliminate about 95% of casualties in the North East.
"Every single collision we have in the North East is a family member, potentially a mother or a father, a son or a daughter.
"By putting a face to a collision it makes it real.
"They're not just statistics, they're actually real life people."