Injured motorcyclists rescued after bike sent SOS alert

The pair are now back on the road after recovering, and were in Croatia this summer

Swedish motorcyclists who were seriously injured in a crash on a Welsh road, were rescued when their bike detected the impact and sent out an automatic SOS.

Johan Takats, 47, was riding a BMW R 1250 GS Adventure bike when he lost control on a slip road of the A40 in Raglan, Monmouthshire, and hit the barrier of the central reservation, triggering the emergency call.

The force of the impact, on 26 May 2022, caused pillion passenger Helena Engstrom, 45, to be thrown onto the opposite side of the dual carriageway, leaving them both lying helplessly on the road with serious pelvic and leg injuries.

An investigation, filmed for BBC series The Crash Detectives, revealed that when the riders were too badly injured to respond to a call from BMW's emergency centre, the bike's GPS pinpointed their exact location and the alarm was raised with Gwent Police.

"Due to the intervention of the technology on the motorcycle, detecting the collision, and making that call, it's probably got help to them more quickly than if they were having to describe their location," said forensic collision investigator PC Richie Wyatt.

They were travelling in a group of four, on three bikes, with Helena's boyfriend Peter Mårtensson, and another friend, Mattias Johansson.

It was day six of a trip which they had started by taking a ferry to Germany, before travelling to Amsterdam and then taking another ferry to Newcastle upon Tyne.

They had visited Hadrian's Wall, and Mount St Bernard Abbey, and spent the night before the collision in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion.

Mr Takats, who works in IT and has been a motorcyclist for 18 years, said the bike was just a few months old at the time of the collision, and the standard-fit SOS function was a reassuring feature.

"I think it is great technology," he said.

"It is nice to know that in an accident the bike can send information like location, speed and direction of travel to the call centre."

But he admitted: "I never thought I would be needing it."

Helen was treated on the road for her injuries after the crash

The group were making their way to France, via Stonehenge and Bournemouth, when their journey came to an abrupt and unexpected end – in Raglan.

Mr Takats remembers very little of what happened – but a forensic police examination of the evidence followed.

As a motorcycle rider himself, collision investigator PC Wyatt reconstructed the way the bike would have travelled through the scene, as the rider battled to regain control, and quickly ruled out high speed.

But it soon became clear that the road surface leading up to the collision scene was in poor condition, with potholing in lane one meaning a rider would choose to ride in lane two.

But as a result of vehicles travelling around the tight left-hand bend of the slip road, debris had been pushed to the offside part of this lane, creating a considerable depth of gravel.

PC Wyatt added: "Probably the one vehicle you don't want to be on, to travel through that debris and that is a motorcycle.

"It's caught the edge of debris - and there's no coming out of there.

"To have that amount of potholing and grit on the road surface at that time and for that to be a sole causation factor of the collision is relatively rare."

When his investigation into the crash was complete, the road was swept clean to try and improve it for other road users.

Investigators found difficult road conditions, that may not have been visible to the rider, could have contributed to the crash

Pillion passenger Ms Engstrom, who works with nursery school children, said: "I remember being in the air, going over the barrier and landing on the road on the other side."

PC Wyatt found a scrape of blue paint on the road surface, created as her helmet hit the ground.

But as she lay on the road, her thoughts were consumed with the terrifying prospect of what could happen next, as she added: "I was thinking I needed to roll back against the barrier so I wouldn't get hit by oncoming cars."

Mr Takats said: "Our helmets saved us, both of them were really damaged.

"We are always making sure our bikes and equipment are up to standard.

"We know the importance of having the correct clothes and helmets."

The riders, who are from Lund near Malmo, both had surgery at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where they were treated for two weeks, before being flown home for further care.

Mr Takats said: "We are very grateful for all the help we received from the emergency personnel, everyone at the hospital in Cardiff, the people that transferred us back to Sweden, the staff at the hospital in Lund and all the physiotherapists we met.

"We would like to say a big thank you to all of them."

The group - Johan Takats, Helena Engstrom, Mattias Johansson, Peter Mårtensson - are now back on the road again

While it was a year before they were well enough to be back at work full-time, their experience failed to dent their enthusiasm for biking.

With the motorcycle now repaired, and back on the road, the group toured down to Croatia this summer, and are planning another trip for the spring.

But Mr Takats admits it was still daunting to ride again.

He said: "The first time back on the bike felt a bit strange and it took a couple of rides to trust the grip from the tyres.

"I still don't like it when I see gravel."

Ms Engstrom said: "The first ride we were extra careful but I didn't feel anything different than before.

"I just enjoyed it."

The full investigation into the collision can be seen on Crash Detectives: Fair to all parties, on BBC iPlayer