A dream cross-Canada motorcycle trip came to a painful halt for 67-year-old Martin Waring of the U.K. after a wasp flew into his helmet and stung him on the face, causing him to black out and crash on Highway 401 in Whitby, Ont.
The terrifying incident happened Sept. 3 in the eastbound lanes near Brock Street. Waring, an experienced rider who has biked through Norway’s Arctic Circle and the Himalayas, was traveling with friends when the sting triggered a severe allergic reaction. He lost control of his rental bike and slammed into a concrete barrier.
Rushed to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Waring learned he had a broken femur and nine broken ribs. Surgeons inserted a 40-centimetre titanium pin in his leg, while his ribs remain strapped as he endures a slow recovery.
“I indicated left, looked again — and then blacked out. It was so quick,” Waring said from his hospital bed, grateful to be alive.
His partner Nicky and son Jack have flown in from the U.K. to be by his side, while his daughter Jasmine says the family is relieved his injuries aren’t life-altering. Waring hopes to return home to Willaston, south of Liverpool, within 10 days — though he admits this crash has likely ended his long career of international motorcycle adventures.
“All because I had the misfortune to ride in the same space as a wasp,” he said, calling the ordeal both frightening and life-changing.