THE owner of a motocross circuit has defended its safety record after a serious accident led to a biker being air-lifted to hospital.

Phil Garland, 34, of Greenwich Way, Waltham Abbey, suffered 23 fractures after falling off his bike at the Essex MX track, off Weald Hall Lane, Thornwood, on July 3, and has only recently been released from hospital.

But Essex MX owner Steve Brooks, 51, said his track had one of the best safety records in the country and the accidents which happened there were unavoidable given the nature of his sport.

He said: “We work closely with health and safety, we've got fully trained marshals, we've got paramedics on site, first aiders on site.

“In the five and a half years I've been here I don't know if we've had 20 serious accidents. If you check any other motocross track it can run into hundreds.

“You've got people jumping 90 foot jumps and they're 20 foot in the air when they do it. Sooner or later someone's going to get something wrong. There's no-one who comes to motocross who thinks they've no chance of coming off.”

Mr Garland, a contract supervisor and experienced biker, was taken to Royal London Hospital, in east London, by air ambulance after his accident and is now recovering at home.

He said: “I don't really know what happened. It started off as a normal day. I'd done a few sessions, and I was going out to do another session. The next minute I was in hospital. I don't remember the accident at all.

“It was pretty scary. I woke up in hospital with my family looking over me. That's my first recollection.

“I've got 14 fractures in my back and nine on my ribs. When they told me it was a bit of a shock.

“Luckily all the breaks were stable. I'm getting stronger every day, and I'm expected to make a full recovery.”

Mr Garland has been riding bikes off-road since he was 12, but his recent experience has made him reconsider ever doing so again.

He said: “I've got a wife and young daughter, and when this happens it makes you think. You start to think you're very lucky and it could have been totally different. I love biking, but at the moment it's so raw. I don't want to put my family through it again.”

Mr Garland said he wanted to thank first aid staff at Essex MX, and the air ambulance for treating him.