Posted on 03/18/2003 5:35:40 PM PST by TLBSHOW
The rock star Mark Knopfler lay in the road screaming in agony after a crash on his high-powered motorcycle, a witness said yesterday.
Knopfler: broken ribs The 53-year-old former leader of Dire Straits broke six ribs and a collarbone when his machine collided with a car in Grosvenor Road, Belgravia, central London, two days ago.
The witness, who declined to be named, said: "I was waving down a cab when I saw him lying in the middle of the road with a large motor-bike on the floor next to him.
"Cars were racing past him, so I ran out next to him to make sure he wouldn't be hit. He was screaming 'my shoulder, my shoulder' and writhing in agony. He kept asking people to take his helmet off, screaming 'take my lid off, take my lid off'. I made sure no one did, as I know you're not supposed to. An ambulance arrived in minutes and I left."
Yesterday Knopfler's injuries forced him to cancel a Teenage Cancer Trust performance he was due to headline with Eric Clapton on Tuesday. His place will be taken by Nigel Kennedy, the classical violinist, who will perform a jazz set.
Knopfler had recently returned from Nashville after recording an album with Emmylou Harris. He was on his way to rehearsals for a European tour that starts next month in Portugal. After treatment at St Thomas's Hospital, Westminster, he was allowed home.
His injuries are not expected to affect his tour or concerts in America due to begin in Portsmouth, Virginia, in June, in support of his third solo album, The Ragpicker's Dream.
Knopfler is one of a number of celebrities who have been hurt in motorcycle crashes. Liam Neeson broke his pelvis while riding his 1989 Harley Davidson near New York three years ago.
Keanu Reeves, The Matrix actor, has had a number of serious accidents, including a near fatal crash on his Norton in 1997. Arnold Schwarzenegger fractured several ribs in a crash in California two years ago.
You've got to be nuts.
These people have never heard of Isaac Newton nor have a clue about the laws of physics.
I beg to differ. Motorcycles are a real-time education in the laws of physics, and will frequently teach you things you really didn't want to know.
and I'm not nuts, well thats my opinon anyway.
Oh and I now a little about physics.
Like all about the normal force and the coefficient of braking, for example.
Keep your skin. Drive a car.
And pass up a perfectly good (and useeful) education?
LOL, not really in Knopfler's case. Mark is my favorite artist, and I saw him in the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in May 2001 - simply the most astonishing show you'd ever hope to see.
I said "not really" because Knopfler suffered similiar injuries back in 1986, when his racing car crashed in one of these celebrity racing events that you hear about. I remember the night I heard about this on the radio, all too well. I was returning home from watching the World Series game where Buckner let Mookie Wilson's grounder go through his legs, and the hated Mets won the Series.
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