Zero MX Rider Injured At Motocross Wohlen
Last weekend on April 24 the first race of a Swiss e-Moto MX series was held at Motocross Wohlen in Wohlen, Switzerland. During the first lap of the first heat Tommy Heimburg of ERIDE Motorcycles suffered a serious crash in which his Zero MX frame failed near the head tube. Sources say the crash was a result of the frame failure. Tommy’s injuries are said to be serious and included a concussion and two broken vertebra a partially collapsed lung (see update below) but they were not life threatening. To my knowledge official medical reports have not been communicated.
I talked to Zero Motorcycles PR about the incident and they are working hard to find out the details of the crash. Zero Motorcycles was not officially sponsor the event so no representatives were at Wohlen during the race. They were told Tommy Heimburg is OK and that is their biggest concern. California based Zero employees including Zero founder and engineer Neal Saiki will be going Switzerland to examine the failed frame this week. They plan to be forthright with information and communicate it to the public as they learn what happened during the race and the cause of the frame failure.
This type of failure is very rare for dirt bikes but it has happened to ICE powered bikes including KTM. We will have to wait for reports from Zero to find out if there is a risk to other Zero motorcycles. For now we will hope for a full and fast recovery for Tommy.
On a happier note, Matteo De Sandre took a Quantya MX to a convincing 33 second victory over the rest of the field which included 2 other Zero bikes.
UPDATE: Zero has received word that Tommy Heimburg suffered a concussion and a partially collapsed lung. No mention of any broken vertebra so I will update my original post to reflect that.
Heimburg is in good spirits and will race again.
The broken Zero MX frame will be shipped to Zero Headquarters in California for examination by Zero engineers.
More updates as they become available.
In: News, Zero Motorcycles · Tagged with: crash, E-Moto, ERIDE Motorcycles, failure, frame failure, head tube, Motocross Wohlen, MX European Championship, MX Wohlen AG, Switzerland, Thomas Heimberg, Wohlen, Wohlen Switzerland, Zero Motorcycles
on April 28, 2010 at 12:51 am