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‘He hit me hard and I went sailing through the air and hit the road face first’

Martin Shaw on the motorbike accident that could have cost him his life

It is 25 years since Martin Shaw’s love of speed almost cost him his life in 1981, but he can remember it as if it were yesterday. In a hurry as usual, Martin was pushing his beloved BMW R100RS motorbike as fast as he dared while overtaking two lines of frustrated backed-up traffic on London’s North Circular Road. He was concentrating hard on staying just inside the white line and constantly checking to make sure there was no right turn ahead and nowhere for any of the trapped cars and lorries to go. Then suddenly, his motorcycle was sideswiped by a car that pulled out in front of him very fast.

‘I can only think that because of the traffic jam he’d got irritated and decided to do a U-turn,’ said Martin. ‘And that’s something you can’t predict. He hit me hard and I went sailing through the air and hit the road face first. The next thing I saw was an artic coming towards me on the other side of the road!’

Instinctively, he carried on rolling, very fast across the road and he even managed to bump up the kerb on the other side. It all happened much too fast for him to realise exactly what was happening and afterwards he decided he must have been knocked out as soon as he hit the road, although he did recall a painful glimpse of his bike somersaulting end over end down the carriageway.

At the time, The Professionals was the hottest show on television, so seeing Martin Shaw performing death-defying stunts was nothing out of the ordinary. But this time as he gingerly began to recover there was no director to shout ‘Cut!’. After he had finally stopped rolling, Martin finished on the edge of the road. He was semi-conscious and at first unable to move. His visor was shattered but miraculously he escaped without any real injury. As the feeling gradually came back into his body he was able to think that he must not move because he might have broken bones or internal injuries. People rushed to his side wondering if they had just witnessed yet another motorcycling fatality.

‘There were people talking to me, but because the front of the helmet and visor was smashed, they didn’t know if I was dead or not,’ said Martin. ‘Obviously I wasn’t dead and I wasn’t even badly hurt. I found that everything moved and I hadn’t broken a thing. I had been really, really lucky.’

The bike was pretty badly damaged but the driver who pulled out and caused the crash admitted his guilt, and the driver of the artic. and two other motorists offered to explain what had happened. Martin was very grateful: ‘So many people these days don’t want the hassle and don’t want to get involved.’

Such a terrifying accident might have pushed some motorbike enthusiasts to the comparative safety of four wheels but not Shaw. A few months later he took delivery of an electrifyingly swift F1-spec Honda.