Student paralysed in quad bike crash wants them banned at holiday hotpsots

Rubayet Ahmed was riding a quad bike when he was thrown off the edge of a cliff in Croatia.

A man who was permanently paralysed when he fell off a cliff on a quad bike while on holiday with friends has called for them to be banned.

Student Rubayet Ahmed is now paralysed from the waist down after the quad bike he was on plunged over the edge of a cliff on the island of Bol, Croatia, in September last year.

After the bike flew from the edge of the cliff, Rubayet, who was celebrating finishing his second year of university with 11 friends, clung on to the handlebars and was flipped with the bike, before crashing into the cliff face below.

He said he owes his life to a helmet he was wearing but said it was not compulsory to wear one and he was the only one of his friends who chose to.

Rubayet is calling for quad bikes to be banned in popular holiday towns and is warning against people hiring them if they go away this year.

The Queen Mary University student, from Eltham, London, said: ‘It’s not the quad bikes themselves that are dangerous but the negligence of the companies providing them.

‘They gave me the quad bike, told me how to go forwards and how to stop, but that was where the instructions ended.

‘I never went more than 10mph. The bikes need clear instructions, what to do in the event of an accident, otherwise they should be banned.

‘There were no signs, no warnings that the accident could change my life forever.’

Rubayet suffered a spinal cord injury after falling around 65ft off the cliff.

He said he was travelling at low speed but the quad bike ‘suddenly flipped’, launching him and another friend who was sat behind him over the edge.

The friend managed to slide off the back of the bike and escaped with minor injuries.

But Rubayet said he ‘knew instantly’ he had become paralysed.

He added: ‘I closed my eyes and counted to three, before shouting out to my friends to call an ambulance.

‘In total, I was lying there for one and a half hours, completely panic stricken, it was the adrenaline that kept me going.

‘I remember hearing a really loud ringing sound in my ears, and thought that that was it, I was going to die.

‘One of my friends, who is a doctor, wouldn’t let me fall asleep, even though that’s all my body and mind just wanted to do.’

His helmet cracked when he smashed into the cliff face and he said it ‘without a doubt’ saved his life, calling for helmets to become compulsory.

He said: ‘All my friends were riding around without helmets on at high speeds, and encouraging me to do the same.

‘But I’d always put safety first and had ensured my helmet was on.’