A cyclist knocked off his bike by a bus says he escaped being paralyzed – because his PHONE was in his pocket.
Lucky James Wilkinson, 39, was flung onto the windscreen of the vehicle and fell off it moments before it ploughed into the side of a house.
But dad-of-two says he was told by medics that he may have avoided being paralysed – because his phone was in his back pocket
The handset took the impact of the crash saving him from serious lower-spine damage.
Trainee bus driver James, from Up Hatherley, Glos, was one of four people injured when a bus crashed into a house in Prestbury at about 6.10pm on Friday.
He said: “Not many cyclists get hit by a bus and survive, let alone walk again on the same night.
“The woman who did the scan at hospital told me my phone protected the lower part of my spine. She said I could have been paralysed.
“I wasn’t able to walk until about midnight. I felt so lucky.”
In the aftermath of the accident, James chipped a bone in his spine and suffered bruises to his head and right hand as well as skin being scraped from his body.
He was unable to move initially, and feared he would never play football with sons Charlie, aged eight, and Harry, 10.
He had gone for a 25-mile bike ride after work, training to be a bus driver, when the collision happened.
“I felt this massive whack from behind,” James said. My first thought was, ‘Who is that hitting me?’
“I saw the bus smash into the building. I couldn’t feel my legs and there was a lot of pain in my back.”
He added: “I was really scared. I thought I was paralysed. I couldn’t move at all.
“All my body went numb. I thought, ‘I am not going to play with my boys again.’
I was lying there crying. I think I lost consciousness.
“Police told me I was lucky not to have been on the windscreen when the bus hit the house.”
The Trek Madone 4.7 bike cost more than £3,000 including upgrades and was written off in the crash.
James was in contention to represent Great Britain in the Middle Distance Triathlon European Championships in November but now is unsure whether he will be able to compete.
“That bike was hung on the wall in my bedroom,” he said. “It was my prized possession.”
