Two champion teenage boxers are “lucky to be alive” following a scrambler bike crash that left them in hospital with serious injuries, the secretary of their club has said.
The pair now face a long road to recovery following the crash, Eamonn Magill, secretary of the Sacred Heart Boxing Academy said, after the machine they were riding was involved in the collision with a car on the Cliftonville Road.
Ordhan McGarry (16) and Conal Marley (15) on Thursday remained in the Royal Victoria Hospital with broken bones but no internal injuries.
Mr Magill, in an appeal to parents and young people, said: “Please, please be careful and if using these bikes use them responsibly. We could have been burying these lads. They are lucky to be alive.”
But Mr Magill said the club is a “family” and will do everything possible to help in their recovery and get them back in the ring. Mr Magill described them as cracking young boxers, Conal a two-time Ulster champion, Ordhan a winner at Co Antrim level.
The boys were riding along the Cliftonville Road when the scrambler bike was involved in the collision shortly after 6pm on Wednesday. They were rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital trauma centre but later moved to one of the wards.
Conal suffered a broken leg, Ordhan a broken leg and hand, but thankfully there are no internal injuries, said Mr Magill, who visited both boys at the hospital and their families since the crash.
He added: “It is going to take a long time to get back to normal. They are in for a lot of recovery.
“Our club is close knit and will help anyway we can. They are going to be cooped up for a long time and they will not be used to that, more used to running around.”
But Mr Magill, one of the driving forces behind the recent years revival of the Sacred Heart club and a prominent professional boxing referee, is extremely critical of the on-road use of scrambler bikes.
“100% they are death machines (on the road). If you have these things then go to the fields and do what you need to do. You cannot be going around the urban jungle,” he said.
Mr Magill added: “I’d also like to thank the residents of the Cliftonville Road who helped and stayed with the boys until the emergency services and their parents arrived. We as a club are very grateful.”
Scrambler bikes are hugely popular but as “dirt bikes” can only be ridden on the road under strict conditions, Riders must be 16, have an AM driving licence, plate, insurance, a vehicle excise licence and lamps, reflectors and rear markings if they wanted to ride the bikes on the road.