Richard Branson 'thought he was going to die' in bike accident
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson was recently injured in a serious bike accident while cycling on Virgin Gorda, an island in the British Virgin Islands.
Branson shared images of his injuries after the accident and described what had happened in a blog post Friday.
"I was heading down a hill towards Leverick Bay when it suddenly got really dark and I managed to hit a ‘sleeping policeman’ hump in the road head on. The next thing I knew, I was being hurled over the handlebars and my life was literally flashing before my eyes," he wrote.
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Branson said his helmet helped mitigate most of the damage. His bike fell off the cliff. He cracked his cheek and cut his chin, knee and shoulder, among other things, but hasn't sustained any serious injuries apart from some torn ligaments, he wrote.
Branson was preparing for the Virgin Strive Challenge, in which he, alongside his children Holly and Sam and several others, will travel more than 1240 miles from the summit of the Matterhorn to the summit of Mt. Etna in Sicily. The challenge, whose goal is to raise 1.5 million pounds ($1.98 million) to help a charity organization called Big Change that funds innovative projects from young people in the UK, and entails hiking, running, swimming and cycling.
Branson, who is an experienced kitesurfer and adventurer, is no stranger to accidents. In February, he said on Twitter he'd been bitten by a stingray while swimming in the Cayman Islands. Despite his most recent accident, he still plans to participate in the challenge next month.
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
