British Superbike champion Shane Byrne wins High Court claim over ‘catastrophic’ injuries
6x time British champion Shane Byrne has won his court case against defending bodies, following his injuries sustained at a test day in 2018, where he argued the suitability of the surrounding safety barriers.
Shane Byrne – 2018.
In 2018, Shane Byrne, 47, collided with a barrier after coming off his Ducati Panigale bike during a test at Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk on 17 May 2018, leaving him with several fractures and internal injuries. He sued three sports bodies, claiming the barrier was insufficient and was responsible for causing harm.
He has sued three sports bodies for damages, including Motorsport Vision Racing – which runs the British Superbike championship – Motorsport Vision and the Motorcycle Circuit Racing Control Board.
The six-time champion, who currently manages various riders on a global and national scale; claimed the barrier during the test was insufficient and was responsible for his injuries, while the defending bodies claimed Mr. Byrne was at fault for the incident.
In a High Court judgment on Friday, Judge Peter Blair KC said the bodies were liable for Mr. Byrne’s injuries, saying they were “materially caused” by the collision with the barrier.
Type A Barriers.
The judge said in a 31-page ruling that the cause of Mr. Byrne coming off his bike was “a foreseeable type of racing incident”, and that it was “negligent”, not to have type-A barriers on the corner of the crash.
Type-A barriers are air-filled barriers, which act as shock absorbers. The ones used during the race were type-D, consisting of tyres bolted together.
“I am satisfied that the incident was not caused by rider error. Mr Byrne was not the author of his own misfortune and he was not contributorily negligent,” Judge Blair added.
“I have reached the view that if the claimant’s impact had been into type-A material, he would not have sustained any of the serious injuries he did sustain on the day.”
“Nothing presented in the evidence on behalf of the defendants dissuaded me from that conclusion.”
Byrne crashed at the three-mile Snetterton circuit, at the section known as Palmer Corner, while Byrne was on his second lap of the test.
Barrister Kiril Waite, representing Byrne, said the rider jumped from the bike, which was coming off the track at around 60mph, and went across a grass run-off area.
This court case could seriously shift the entire dynamic of UK track days, will we see other historic cases arise off the back of this in an attempt to claim some form of compensation?
Superbike will continue to update this story as it progresses.