\n Dominic Pearson from Thetford hopes to win compensation via the courts against Chicksands Bike Park in Bedfordshire, where he was injured in January 2022.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Mail reports Mr Pearson, a 39-year-old former army mechanic, was riding on a trail called the Snake Run in the park near Biggleswade in January, 2022, when he saw a ramped jump in his path as he came around a bend.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Pearson, who usually enjoyed riding trails without jumps braked to avoid the ramp.\n<\/p>\n
\n He then went over the handlebars of his bike before hitting a hump in the ground head-first, fracturing four ribs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two weeks after the accident, Mr Pearson posted on social media saying he had had been involved in “a traumatic and potentially life changing accident” whilst cycling.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dominic Pearson pictured in hospital in an image shared on social media (Image: Facebook)\n<\/p>\n
\n “It resulted in leaving me with a broken back, spinal cord damage and current inability to move my legs,” he told friends.\n<\/p>\n
\n “After a week in intensive care, and having surgery to stabilise my T6 spinal fracture I am now on a long road to recovery.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Pearson, who also suffered other fractures, along with lung and psychological injuries, was treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge before spending months in rehabilitation at a specialist spinal centre in Sheffield.\n<\/p>\n
\n In an update three months after the accident, he posted: “The bad news is I am currently paralysed from the nipples down, with no feeling or movement and suffer a lot of nerve pain in my legs and abdomen.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dominic Pearson pictured after the accident (Image: Facebook)\n<\/p>\n
\n “But, the good news is I am doing great with my therapy, I am fully independent with daily stuff like showering, dressing and getting around in my wheelchair (wheelies too).\n<\/p>\n
\n “I have learnt to swim un-aided just this week and how to get in and out of a car and look forward to driving again soon.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Pearson worked as a mechanic in the army from 2008 to 2016, before moving on to a job at Norfolk supercar manufacturer Lotus.\n<\/p>\n
\n He is seeking provisional damages allowing him to return to court to seek more compensation if his condition worsens and he develops more spinal complications.\n<\/p>\n
\n The entrance to Chicksands Bike Park, near Biggleswade (Image: Google)\n<\/p>\n
\n He is accusing the park owners of negligence, saying they failed to take care to check he would be reasonably safe.\n<\/p>\n
\n Chicksands’ website says it operates a range of trails in its woodland park and warns its directors and staff are not liable for personal injury.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Chicksands Bike Park is an extreme riding facility and all users face the risk of serious injury, physical and mental trauma or death whilst riding in the park,” it says.<\/p>\n
“All riders use the bike park strictly at their own risk and agree to these risks when buying a day pass or taking out a membership with Chicksands Bike Park.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic Pearson from Thetford hopes to win compensation via the courts against Chicksands Bike Park in Bedfordshire, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-654439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}