Cyclist 'escaped spinal injury' after iPhone in back pocket broke his fall

A cyclist who got hit by a coach escaped with minor injuries because he had his phone in his back pocket.

James Wilkinson, 39, suffered cuts, bruises and a chipped vertebrae when he was hit by a bus before the vehicle slammed into a house.

But Mr Wilkinson said doctors told him he escaped major spinal injury partly because of having a phone in his pocket, Gloucestershire Live reported.

"The woman who did the scan at hospital told me my phone protected the lower part of my spine," he told the newspaper.

"She said I could have been paralysed ... I feel so lucky," he added.

Mr Wilkinson, who is a bus driver himself, had been on a 25-mile bike ride when the accident happened on Friday evening in Prestbury, Gloucestershire.

Mr Wilkinson said he lost a lot of skin and was still in pain but that it could have been a lot worse.

"Not many cyclists get hit by a bus and survive," he observed.

Roger Marchant, managing director of Marchants Coaches, told Gloucestershire Live that the firm is working with police who are investigating the incident.

Gloucestershire Police said they were called around 6.10pm to a collision between a bus and a cyclist on Deep Street, Prestbury.

A spokeswoman said: "The bus driver was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol with serious injuries but is in a stable condition.

"A male cyclist went to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

"There was a female passenger on the bus who made her own way to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital with a suspected fractured arm.

"Another man on the bus had minor injuries but did not need further treatment."

There was nobody inside the house at the time of the crash apart from a pet dog which was uninjured.

The Evening Standard has contacted Marchants Coaches for comment.