A motorcyclist who survived a head-on crash with a lorry and captured the moment on his headcam talks to Gavin Engelbrecht about his lucky escape.

A NORTH-EAST man miraculously escaped death when a truck carrying 20 people ploughed into his motorbike in the Himalayas.

The crash – graphically captured by Ozzy Rutherford on his headcam – prematurely ended an astonishing trip across some of the most dangerous mountain roads in the world.

Headcam footage of his accident in the Kashmir province of India has become an internet hit after being posted on YouTube, along with film of his dramatic crossing of the notorious Rohtang Pass – a name translated as pile of corpses.

Mr Rutherford, 47, who works throughout the North-East, said: “I have no physical memory of the accident. It is a complete blank. I was knocked unconscious for about ten minutes.

“It was only when I got home and watched the footage that I saw what had happened.

“My motorcycle ended up under the front wheels of the lorry. I must have managed to push myself away at the last second.”

As well as an “impressive array of bruises”, he suffered two fractured bones in his lower left leg.

He said: “Thankfully, the breaks were closed and did not pierce the skin. They are in perfect position to heal.”

Mr Rutherford said what had made the difference was his protective gear, including boots bought from Altberg of Richmond, in North Yorkshire, which also provides equipment for police motorcyclists.

He said: “A further stroke of luck was that a car had just overtaken me.

“Had I been in that position, the lorry would have struck me off a bridge with a 160ft drop to a raging river below.”

The accident happened when the truck – which had been converted into a bus – lost control near Jamma, in Kashmir.

Mr Rutherford, of Alnwick, Northumberland, was on a tour with about 20 motorcyclists from around the world.

The day before, the group found the Rohtang Pass, between Manali and Keylong, blocked by landslides caused by the monsoon rains.

Mr Rutherford’s headcam footage depicts an adrenalincharged drive along the precipitous pass, which had been reduced to one lane, forcing him to overtake a queue of stationary traffic several miles long, with inches to spare from a vertical drop into a valley below.

In one two-mile stretch there were 15 to 20 hairpin bends.

Mr Rutherford, who was driving a Fifties 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet, said: “In nearly 30 years of riding it is without doubt the most extreme riding I have ever undertaken – and I loved every second of it. It was not just about adrenalin, but about the whole experience.”

Mr Rutherford once served as the North-East representative of the Motorcycle Action Group and is a sales and contract manager in chromatography equipment services.

He said: “I’ve been incredibly lucky. You never know what is around the next corner.”