Three-time world speedway champion Tai Woffinden has revealed the haunting memories that have stayed with him from the crash that left him fighting for his life in a coma.
The 34-year-old, regarded as Britain’s most successful rider in the sport, is now in the early stages of a remarkable recovery following a catastrophic crash during a race in Krosno, Poland, in March.
Woffinden suffered more than 15 broken bones — including a double compound femur fracture, shattered humerus, 12 broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder — after being thrown into the air fence at high speed.
He was airlifted to hospital and placed in a medically induced coma after undergoing multiple major surgeries.
Speaking for the first time since the accident, Woffinden recounted in chilling detail the moment of impact and the emotional reactions of those first on the scene.
‘I remember everything,’ he said. ‘In the race that I crashed I made a pretty decent start, so I blipped the throttle a little bit coming into the corner.
Three-time world speedway champion Tai Woffinden, 34, is recovering from a horror crash
Woffinden has posted pictures of some of his scars online after breaking more than 15 bones
‘The junior rider off gate one drove over the kerb, ran into the guy that was off gate two, who then collected me.
‘As I got collected, you drop it on the side and slide towards the fence. My bike hit the APD (airfence) first, which lifted it up probably about a metre.
‘And the moment I saw that lift, I just went, “oh f***”. And then I hit the fence, I heard my femur snap.
‘It’s almost like if you’re underwater and you snap a tree branch.’
As he lay motionless on the track, Woffinden realised the severity of his injuries not from pain, but from the looks of horror around him.
He recalled: ‘I remember looking up and seeing everybody around me. The team manager’s face looked like he had seen a ghost.
‘One person was crying looking at my body. My arms were pointing all in the wrong direction. My left shoulder was dislocated, pointing upwards.
‘My right humerus was shattered at the bottom. My elbow was dislocated and my elbow was broken.
‘I actually couldn’t see my hands when I was laying on the track because they were both pointing up.’
Woffinden, who has represented Great Britain at the highest level for more than a decade, described how he begged for pain relief in broken Polish as medics worked to stabilise him.
‘I’m sat there saying, “give me some meds”. I was saying “bol, bol, bol” which means pain in Polish just to make sure they knew what I was talking about.’
In a moment that brings fresh weight to the trauma he endured, Woffinden also revealed the last sound he remembers before everything went black — the roar of the helicopter blades as he was flown to hospital.
‘I remember the blades of the helicopter, the noise of it starting to take off. And then the next thing, I’m in a coma.’
The crash took place in Poland in March and Woffinden has a long way to go in his recovery
Woffinden pictured in Manchester during last year’s British Speedway Championship Final
Far from being peaceful, the coma experience was deeply disturbing.
‘I thought a coma would have been a pleasant sleep. It was quite the opposite. It was quite scary at times. I was on sedatives and painkillers and antibiotics.
‘I was hallucinating, I was dreaming and having nightmares. Normally you have a nightmare and you wake up. Well, I couldn’t wake up.
‘I dealt with some wild s***. I woke up from the coma, and everything that I’d dreamt, I believed it was real. And my wife Faye was like, “mate, that didn’t happen”. I was getting angry with Faye because she wasn’t believing me.’
Now in intensive rehab, Woffinden has made extraordinary strides and is reportedly eight weeks ahead of schedule.
He is not yet making decisions about his return to racing, with his sole focus on recovering from injuries that doctors described as life-threatening.
‘There’s so many variables. We need to give it that extra month to heal and then have the CT scan so we can really see what’s going on from all different angles,’ he said.
‘I might need another operation on my humerus in my arm because it was shattered in 27 places. If the metalwork hasn’t helped it knit together, I’ll need another op.
‘I’ve done everything I possibly can. I’ve done four to five hours a day in rehab since I left the hospital. My progress is on another level.
‘It’s ridiculous. Where I’m at given the injuries is f*****g phenomenal.
‘I would like to ride my bike again, whether that’s competitive or not or just practice, who knows?
‘But I just make micro personal goals to keep reaching. Only my recovery comes first.’
