“A 20-year-old British man is in a coma in the intensive care unit of KAT Hospital after an accident involving a quad bike on Zakynthos. The young man and his friends had rented the vehicles for recreational rides, but under circumstances that remain unclear, he collided with a bus, suffering serious injuries.”
When I read the news, I froze. Twenty-five years ago, I nearly became a victim of a quad myself. I rented one for the first time on Antiparos island, assuming that because I had been riding motorcycles since the age of 18, I would be perfectly comfortable handling this vehicle.
I was wrong. I climbed onto the quad, with its aggressive off-road tires, and slowly rode in a straight line away from the rental shop. After the straight stretch, the road curved to the right, and I attempted to follow the bend by turning the handlebars. The only problem was that the quad had a will of its own. It simply continued straight ahead, forcing me to cross the road at a right angle and pass within inches of a small bus approaching from the opposite direction. I survived purely by luck.
This “unruly” vehicle seemed determined to travel straight ahead and was extremely difficult to steer. It was unstable and offered limited traction on asphalt because it had been designed primarily for off-road terrain.
