Why hasn't anyone told me that Italian princesses who like riding motorcycles are a thing before? Seriously, Italy’s Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon is a proper gearhead. She rides Harleys, is into F1, and if you check out her Instagram account, you'll see she even likes supercar-shaped PWCs.
But even royalty has to accept the same risks as we do when throwing a leg over.
The princess crashed her Harley-Davidson into a wall, which sent her into the ICU and a coma. In a message to her 170,000 Instagram followers, she wrote, “I’m incredibly lucky to be alive. I crashed headfirst into a wall whilst riding a motorcycle and ended up in [a coma] in the Intensive Care Unit. Surviving this was nothing short of a miracle.”
Wearing a helmet is mandatory in Italy, and it must meet the ECE 22.05 or ECE 22.06 safety standards, and if you've been following RideApart for the past while, you also know I think it's absolutely ridiculous not to wear a helmet, although I'm not against you having the choice. But the princess still took a moment to let the world know how much worse her accident would've been had she opted not to put a lid on.
“I wanted to share my own experience as I’ve realized now more than ever that motorcycles are powerful and thrilling, but also unforgiving,” Maria Carolina wrote. “Please ride with care. Wear full protection, especially a proper helmet. Mine saved my life.”
In a way befitting a princess, the 21-year-old signed off her Instagram post by thanking the medical staff, saying, “My deepest thanks to the outstanding team at Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace for their expert care during those critical days, and to the emergency medical team and first responders on the scene, whose quick and decisive actions in those first moments made all the difference.”
The Italian Princess is one of us and serves as a reminder that, no matter our social or economic standing, motorcycles don't discriminate and can even bite when given the utmost respect.
