Car crash that saved cyclist’s life

A Sydney cyclist said his life was saved after a car crash sent him flying off his bike.

Kevin McGuire wears a camera on his helmet every day when he rides 40km around the city’s northern beaches.

It came in handy when on one of his daily rides a car cut him off.

The helmet camera captured the moment Mr McGuire approached a car that had slowed down to cross a pedestrian crossing.

As Mr McGuire tried to overtake the car on the inside, it tried to pull over the two collided.

The dramatic footage shows Mr McGuire flying off his bike and tumbling to the ground with a painful groan.

“I thought I would get back on the bike and finish the ride home,” Mr McGuire told A Current Affair.

The driver of the car, Doug Cohen, quickly came to his aid and called triple-0.

While Mr McGuire’s injuries seemed fairly superficial – a bloody nose and a few cuts and scrapes – the paramedics ran tests that suggested there was more than meets the eye.

When Mr McGuire arrived at the hospital he was told that a valve in his heart was blocked and he was essentially a ticking time bomb.

“It‘s not letting blood through and they said if they, ‘Leave it like that, you will die’,” Mr McGuire said.

Five hours of open heart surgery were required to unclog his heart.

Mr Cohen received a phone call from Mr McGuire’s wife in the days following the accident.

“She said that I had saved Kevin’s life, that I had saved Kevin’s life because of the accident,” Mr Cohen said.

Incredibly, it was Mr Cohen‘s first crash in 50 years of driving.

Mr McGuire only pieced things together after the accident, recalling on at least five recent occasions when he had run out of breath while riding.

The two men have even forged a friendship out of the life-changing experience.

“I think there is a little bit of a kindred spirit there because we‘ve both got jack russells and both got sports cars and they’re both convertibles and we’ve both had heart surgery,” Mr Cohen said.

Mr McGuire said he had a new lease on life after the crash.

“Just enjoy life while you‘re got it, it’s easily snuffed out and you don’t get much warning,” he said.