On Friday 31/3/2006, Ali, Jason (with pillon K) and I left Ace at around 11.40pm heading to Soho. It was raining before we left and the rain started to ease as we were leaving. We took the A406 to hanger lane then joined the A40 heading towards central London.
As we passed the final offslip (Paddington turn off), Ali was in lane 1 with an MPV in front of him. I was way ahead of him and Jason was in lane 2 behind him. Ali did his lifesaver check and started to pull out into lane 2 to overtake the MPV.
As he came across lane 2, for some reason he went too much to the right and clipped the kerb on the central reservation which made his bike upright and Ali started fighting the bike but it somehow pushed him into the railings on the central reservation. He started sliding along the railings then came to a rest on the tarmac after he parted with the bike.
Jason stopped behind him straight away and so did the traffic behind. I was way ahead and suddenly realised there was no traffic behind me, I looked in my mirror and saw Ali’s headlight facing sideways on the road. I stopped immediately on the hard shoulder and ran back to Ali.
Jason called the emergency services straight away and then we (Jason, K, me and the other car drivers) all started tending to Ali as he was conscious. The first ambulance that was at the scene was an off-duty ambulance heading the other direction and saw the traffic stop so put his blues on and stopped the ambulance on the fast lane and came to help. Two other ambulances appeared a few minutes later.
The paramedics worked on Ali for about 20 minutes and then took him to St Mary’s hospital in Paddington. I was with the police at the scene for over an hour and a half after Ali left as they were carrying out their investigations and were talking to me about the accident.
I then rode to St Mary’s and was told that Ali was conscious which was a good sign but had a lot of injuries. I was told that I wouldn’t be allowed to see him as only family would was allowed. The officer at the hospital told me he would call me with an update.
After I got home, I got a call from the officer telling me that Ali was being taken to the operating theatre. I went to sleep thinking Ali had a lucky escape.
When I woke up the next morning I missed a lot of phone calls on my mobile. My phone rang again, I answered it and it was a police officer asking me, ‘Have had an update on Ali’s condition?’ I said no. He then said ‘Ahhh’, as soon as he said that I knew something was wrong. He asked to meet him at my nearest police station. I got ready to go and meet the officer. I received another phone call from a friend who had the latest update and he told me that Ali sadly lost his fight and didn’t make it. My heart sank!
What made him veer across too much to the right? Was it a cross wind? Was it his tyre started spinning? Was it target fixation? Who knows? Neither Jason or I could answer the question so speculation about it is simply not helping and is infact pissing me and Jason off, as only Ali could tell us what it was.
We found out that Ali had no head injuries but had a lot of injuries especially internally.
Sadly we lost Ali, a 20 year old with a real zest for life and such a promising future. He absolutely loved his SV650 with custom shotgun renegade exhausts. There are so many questions that remain unanswered and a lot of regrets too but one thing is for sure we’ve lost a good friend and a fellow rider.
Be careful and ride safe everyone.
Rest In Peace Ali.
