Matt Walls’ high-speed horror crash was lucky not to end in a complete catastrophe with death or serious injury, say the family caught up in it.
Walls flew into the stands on two wheels after an accident took out a number of riders at Lee Valley VeloPark in London on Sunday.
Amazingly, he ended up with scratches, bruises and stitches to his forehead. Spectators had to be treated with one awaiting surgery on a lacerated arm.
But Laura Colvin, whose two young children were among those caught up in the crash, told BBC Sport: “What has been quite hard for us to get out head around is being able to see the photographs that were taken of the incident exactly how close this came to being a complete catastrophe.
“And how close our two younger children came to being seriously injured or killed. And that has been the main thing we’ve had to reflect on over the last few days.”
Hugh Colvin was sitting in the stands with the couple’s five-year-old and seven-year-old kids at the time of the incident involving Walls, who video called the family the following day to check up on them.
Colvin warned it could have been infinitely worse, Walls’ bike hitting the two seats where his five-year-old and a friend had been sitting moments earlier before moving back a row.
“It all happened so incredibly quickly at the speed the cyclists were going,” he said. “You can see the trajectory of the bike. It came through, grazed my daughter’s shoulder and one of the photos you can see we were obviously underneath the wheel.
“I was facing the other way because I’d turned my head but, looking back at the photos, it must have been within centimetres, millimetres of our heads and obviously close enough to graze my daughter.”
A previous statement from organisers said that no members of the public had needed hospital treatment but the Colvins disputed that regarding their friend, leading to a later apology.
Mrs Colvin added of the family friend: “He suffered a laceration to the bone which the hospital have described as being like a machete injury. It’s been really difficult for him, he’s still waiting for surgery. He’s got a partially severed tendon in his arm so it is the start of a long road to recovery for him.”
