Dying for the thrill of speed

CORONER Andrew Williamson recorded an open verdict on Phillip Buck, Of Queen's Drive, Ramsey, Isle Of Man, who died in a head-on collision involving the van which he was driving near the Mountain Box on Wednesday of last week. German biker Manfred Potzl, 44, was also killed in the accident. Mr Williamson recorded a misadventure verdict on Mr Potzl and said that had he survived the accident, he would have been charged with causing death by reckless driving. Both men died from multiple injuries.

Uwe Neudel from Germany gave evidence of identification of his friend, Mr Potzl. He said that the three of them had come to the island for the races and that it was their first visit. They had spent the day at Ramsey, Point of Ayre and then from Ballaugh decided to return to Douglas on the TT course about 3 p.m.,

All three were driving 750 Hondas. Nuedel said he saw Mr Potzl behind him. Then he saw a blue van coming from Douglas. He heard a bang, looked back and saw debris flying all about. He could not see his friend, went back and realised there had been an accident.

Gillian Greggor and her passenger, Victoria Spivey, were driving towards Douglas at 3.25 p.m. and during the journey were over-taken by groups of riders. One such group was four or five German riders and they commented on how fast the bikes were being ridden. They saw what looked like a cloud of smoke and then came on an accident and recognised the motorbike as being one that had overtaken them. There were bits and pieces all over the road.

Christopher Fisher, a fireman from Devon and Cornwall brigade, came on the accident and with the help of another man removed Mr Potzl from the rear of the van and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Mr Fisher said that the rider had gone straight through the front windscreen of the van and into the back.

Another witness, Glyn Jones from Ballaugh, said he was riding his machine towards Ramsey at about 50 m.p.h. or 60 m.p.h.. When approaching the Mountain Box he saw a blue van ahead and at that moment the van seemed to explode. He ran to see what he could do to help and with Mr Fisher got the rider out of the rear of the van.

The police said there was "colossal" damage to both vehicles. On examining the scene and carrying out a reconstruction, they concluded that the motorcyclist was travelling on the wrong side of the road. The van driver was in his correct position.

The above coroner's report indicates that Potzl died some minutes after Buck. He was just one of seven deaths in the first week of the Isle of man TT races. Graham Evans and his pillion passenger, Janet Harrison were the last to die when their Honda Fireblade crashed on Sunday afternoon.

All of the fatalities involved motorcycles. Only one, Colin Gable, was killed during an official race session. Gable was the 169th competitor to die in the 90-year history of the TT.

THE LIGHTS go green outside Bushys pub on the promenade and they spray out like hornets from the side street on to the main thoroughfare of the island. As if a farmer had taken a stick to their nest, they fire out, spitting and screaming, a thousand chainsaws coming to life. Hondas, Yamahas, Ducatis, Suzukis, Harley Davisons, Laverdas, Kawasakis, Bimotas, Triumphs, Buellas, Motto Guzzis and Cavigas all take off with a banshee wail.

Some do wheelies and some grip their front brakes and make a black doughnut on the road by spinning the back wheel and moving it around sideways. Clouds of burning rubber choke the crowd of some thousands who gather with their flats of cheap beer to encourage the street anarchy.

A low-slung Harley screams by with a totally naked male pillion passenger holding a tricolour. The crowd approve. Another wannabe tries a wheelie and his machine puffs to a humiliating standstill. He receives the jeering whistle. Still, he's lucky.

On Monday, Otmar Burger, 29, was arrested outside Stakis Hotel, which is further down the seafront. He was caught doing a doughnut at 1.20 a.m.. There was so much smoke coming from the bike's back wheel that it triggered the alarms in the hotel, which was subsequently evacuated. Burger did not appreciate it was illegal to do a doughnut as he had seen it on a TT promotional video in Germany entitled `Bikes, Boobs and Beer'. The law can do little.

"We are more than flexible," says a police officer. "We've got to be. There are a small number of us, less than 300, and a large number of bikers. We just try to keep the lid on things."

This year the tourist figures show an increase of Is per cent on last year's total of 13,090 motor bikes and 34,000 passengers coming to the island for the two weeks. A recent census indicated an Isle of Man population of 71,714, barely double the influx of people for the races.

The good weather in the first week this year, the first completely dry week since 1957, has made them go faster, feel more indestructible.

"If it pours down the roads are slippy," says a policeman. "They still fall off and crash, but they are not going as fast as they do on a dry road."

You hear them before you see them. This noise is the heart beat of the island for the same period every year. From The Dragons Nest B&B on Castlemona Avenue you can hear them pour over the mountains and race up the Douglas promenade. The bikes literally keep the villages alive. On an island which has tourism in its lifeblood, the TT fortnight represents not only an exciting if troubled tradition but an avalanche of money for the economy.

Independent from the UK, the islanders make their own laws. There is no speed limit for many of the roads beyond the villages and towns. All of the fatal accidents last week were outside of the speed limit areas and several of them were caused by European riders, mainly German, who wandered over to the wrong side of the road.

"If they come under pressure, their first reflex reaction is to turn to the side of the road they normally drive on and that can be catastrophic," says Sandra Cook, service manager for the Orthopaedic and Trauma Unit in Nobles Hospital.

The island helicopter rescue boasts that no crash victim is more than 14 minutes away from the hospital, too late for many whose point of impact is very often close to 200 m.p.h.. In the foyer of Nobles a tee shirt is pinned to the wall: "I attended the Trauma Unit Nobles Hospital TT Races 90th Anniversary 1997." Not far away a German biker with his leathers rolled down from his torso nurses a plastered arm. Another is helped into the waiting room unable to move his shoulder, clearly in pain. No one pays here for treatment. But they must buy the tee shirt.

Normally, around 30 people would visit the accident unit at Nobles on a Sunday. Last year on Mad Sunday, the first of the fortnight when visiting bikes traditionally take their machines on to the racing course, 105 people arrived in, 28 of them with serious injuries. Last Sunday 122 casualties came through the doors, two of them were dead on arrival.

Nobles is the motorcycling equivalent to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Where the Royal is a world authority on gunshot and bomb blast victims, Nobles is expert on fixing the broken bodies of bikers.

"We've made a video and sent it around to many of the hospitals in the UK. We are a centre of excellence for trauma. The video shows things like how to remove leathers from people. A high concentration of victims that come in to us are young men with high speed trauma motorcycle injuries.

"We have people here who can speak most of the European languages, or we know people on the island who are available to translate. We also have a list of questions printed in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, French and Japanese so that we can communicate with them as soon as they arrive. During the races there is no study or holiday leave for anyone," says Cook.

MIKE'S Ducati Monster 750cc machine looks like a Rottweiler on steroids. He looks like a bulldog on hamburgers. He loves his bike and what it can do for him. Sitting in a row of machines that stretches the entire length of the mile-long seafront, people stop to admire Mike's bike. His Ducati possesses what the industry magazines call "stomp." It also happens to be a good looker.

It is stripped of everything but the parts that make it go fast and the parts that slow it down. The seat is a thin slice of rubber. The enormous tank has arterial siphons arching out of the top so that the petrol can get to the engine more efficiently. It will out-sprint any Porsche or Ferrari. If Mike tries to accelerate his Ducati too quickly it will first throw him off and then back somersault on to the road. There's no fat on the bike, Mike will tell you, but plenty of beef.

Mike's pals look like the murderous bad guys in a spaghetti western. Two of them have Honda Fireblades. The other a Kawasaki Ninja. Their faces are deeply tanned and grimy, their leathers oiled and gravel-scarred, their machines state of the art and spotless. They are a biking stereotype and the island is full of them.

"I was doing 130 m.p.h. on the mountain and people went by me as if I was going backwards," says Mike. "They were trying to outbrake me into a bend and one of them overshot and had to go over to the other side of the road. There was nothing coming around the corner. Mad Sunday? I gave it a miss."

There is no noticeable outcry on the island to the carnage - as there would be in Ireland if seven horses died in a racing festival. At Cheltenham two years ago 10 horses were killed and outraged animal rights activists called for the meeting to be banned. When Chris Eubank put Michael Watson into a coma boxing was derided as brutal and dehumanising. Still, the TT continues. Every year without fail it takes lives. This year the youngest was a 14-year-old girl who was hit while out walking.

But in Douglas there is no feeling that something here has gone awry. The deaths mount, but people only have so much rage in them and that point has long passed. The islanders will say: "What can you do? If you make it one-way only around the TT route they will only go faster. If you make it two-way then they will go on the wrong side of the road anyway."

For the bikers it's not an issue they think about too deeply. This year they would have seen one of the most talented riders at the TT, Phillip McCallen, come off at a frightening speed during the Lightweight TT race and walk away. "A spill," he called it. They saw Robert Dunlop, brother of the remarkable Joey, hit a wall at 100 m.p.h. at Baullagh Bridge two years' ago and cheat death. Knowing nothing else, he came back to line up again this year with a specially-constructed machine tailored for his permanently damaged body.

They watch highlights of the races on video and see the best riders in the world slide down the roads on their arses with their machines disintegrating behind them. Crouched over the tanks in their shapeless leathers and fullface helmets, they are reduced to something less human, more part of the machine.

The police don't hide the accident statistics, but you must ask for them. Last year two people were killed and there were 38 serious crashes. The year before two more died and 6 incidents were serious. Although the overall figures will not be available until next week, this year has been particularly vicious.

The lack of a speed limit is the major draw, but police and ministers will now meet to discuss speed-limiting tactics for next year's event. They cannot win. To slow down the bikers is to take away the very reason the Isle of Man has become the two-wheel Mecca. The buzz is speed. The larking around at Bushys is illegal and highly dangerous but no one dies. There is such a remarkable tolerance.

The police don't really know what to do. It is a question for the politicians, for the people. Police Inspector Kinrade throws the question back at you. "What would you do to stop the accidents?" What she means is how do you cut down the accidents and keep the tourists. There is no answer. The attraction always has been the danger.

That's why Joey Dunlop, at 45, returns each year. He has a CBE, an OBE and a record 22 wins. The problem with the people who flock to watch the TT is that - like everyone else in this world - they cannot ride a motorbike like Joey Dunlop. But they can aspire. Foolishly, that's what many try to do.