Motorcyclist ‘lucky to be alive’ after M1 Gold Coast crash

A man is “lucky to be alive” after a terrifying crash on a busy motorway, and he has a message for ute drivers after the incident.

A motorcyclist is lucky to be alive after a terrifying crash on the M1 motorway that connects Queensland’s Gold Coast and Brisbane.

Travis Irwin, 24, was one of thousands of people travelling on the stretch of road at around 5am on Friday.

A trailing car with a dashcam captured the terrifying moment he was knocked off his bike after a ladder rack fell off a ute and skidded towards two motorcyclists.

Vision of the incident posted to the Dashcam Owners Australia Facebook page shows Mr Irwin come off his bike and slide across the four-lane highway from one side to the other.

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The skidding ladder rack blew the tyre out on Mr Irwin’s motorbike. Picture: Dashcam Owners Australia

Mr Irwin collided with a hatchback and then a ute as he slid across the motorway. Picture: Dashcam Owners Australia

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A second motorcyclist managed to maintain control of their bike as they ran over the ladder rack.

Mr Irwin later wrote on Facebook he was “very lucky to walk away” and asked for ute owners to “please tie your load down properly”.

A second motorcyclist was lucky to keep control after running over the rack, which then collided with the car that recorded the crash on dashcam. Picture: Dashcam Owners Australia

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From his hospital bed in Brisbane, where he was transferred after being taken to Gold Coast University Hospital with gravel rash, burns, bruising and a possible lung injury, Mr Irwin told the Daily Mail he might not have survived if it wasn’t for his protective gear.

He said he was in pain and having “a lot” of trouble breathing, struggling to get in and out of his hospital bed, but said his girlfriend was helping him through it all.

Mr Irwin and his girlfriend Maddi.

People who have seen the video think Mr Irwin is lucky to be alive.

When the footage was posted to the popular Dashcam Facebook page, many couldn’t believe Mr Irwin’s luck, telling him to buy a lottery ticket, while others shared stories of their own near misses from unsecured loads including mattresses, gutter brackets and screws while others lamented these sorts of traffic incidents “happen all the time”.

Armchair traffic experts tried to pin the blame on Mr Irwin but he issued a swift rebuke to them on Tuesday morning.

“May not look like it in the video but for all those heroes saying I swerved and caused the crash that’s not true. The ladder rack hit my bike, blew the front tyre out and hit me, causing me to fall off,” he said.

Originally published as Motorcyclist ‘lucky to be alive’ after M1 Gold Coast crash