THE body of a biker discovered last week on the M40 embankment might have been laying in undergrowth for five days. Police pleas for information about the tragic incident were a grim reminder of the vulnerability of lone motorcyclists.

County Durham innovator Realsafe Technologies have developed revolutionary crash detection technology that could help tackle the problem.

In the UK, motorcyclists represent one per cent of traffic on the road yet account for up to 19 per cent of fatalities, and more than two-thirds of these fatal accidents take place on rural roads.

Zoe Farrington, and her business partner Andrew Richardson have developed technology that aims to reduce those numbers.

After the economic downturn and swingeing Government spending cuts, the North-East entrepreneurs were forced to reassess their £2m turnover marketing consultancy Fused, whose success was founded on public sector contracts. Three and half years ago they took their experience of working with road safety organisations to launch Realsafe, whose online platforms and app detect when a rider has crashed and automatically notifies the emergency services.

"It can help them find a stranded rider within that critical 'golden hour' which is so vital to survival chances," explains Mrs Farrington, who recounts memories of riding pillion on her dad's motorcycle. Earlier this year, a few weeks before her 41st birthday, she passed her bike test and now tours the kind of rural byways where Realsafe could make a huge difference to riders' lives.

The past three years have been spent working out glitches in the technology, raising capital, and convincing public bodies that the Realsafe team had developed something that would help rather than hinder their own operations. The system has been trialled with Great North East Air Ambulance Service and is now being integrated into BT's telematics system so alerts are treated like a 999 emergency.

Mrs Farrington predicts rapid growth for the award-winning business, based at Aykley Heads, Durham City, which employs six people. She hopes a three year contract with BMW Motorrad will provide a bridgehead into Continental Europe, and further growth opportunities include the system being adapted to other applications, such as helping stricken horse riders and cyclists.

"We are first to market, there is nothing else out there like this, so we feel confident we are now in a position to take things onto the next level. It is a really exciting time for us right now," adds Mrs Farrington, who hails from Selby, north Yorkshire. Apart from a spell working for Discovery Channel in London, she has called the North-East home since she went to Northumbria University in 1992.

She concludes: "We have big growth plans and may look to find larger premises at some point, but in my opinion it is quite difficult to develop a business in Durham. It's fine if you want large industrial units but there are a lack of managed premises for someone like us to scale up. We would love to stay in the city but we will have to see."