Compensation helps man get his life back

Thanks to a compensation payout, a motorcycle-lover is back on his bike despite a crash which left him paralysed from the waist down.

Despite suffering a severed spinal cord following a collision in July 2005, Vytautus Gerdziunas, 54, from West Yorkshire, is King of the Road again after suing the car owner for driving without due car and attention, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports.

Mr Gerdziunas told the news source: "At one point the vision of the future was pretty grim […] I thought the prospect of making life anything like it was before the accident was pure fantasy.

"Initially I didn't fancy the idea of buying a trike but […] I went for a test ride and came back with a huge smile on my face and I have not looked back since."

The compensation payout, in the form of a lump sum and an index-linked yearly supplement, also helped Mr Gerdziunas pay for a move to a specially-equipped bungalow from his two-storey terrace.

Motorbike riders are particularly at risk of injury if involved in a collision, and can make a case for compensation if a driver can be proved responsible for the crash.