Biker's tragic death captured on film

The unfortunate traffic accident in which a 39-year-old motorcyclist died at Pembroke on Saturday was a tragic case of fiction becoming reality.

At the time of the accident, Marco D'Agata was acting in scenes for Net TV's teleserial f'Bahar Wiehed - and one of the scenes was of a biker dying in an accident.

Programme director Charles Stroud, who was distraught, said yesterday that when the accident took place they were filming "a normal scene of bikers driving along the road".

He said some of the scenes were of bike riders getting together and one featured an accident in which a biker loses his life. "Ironically, we had already filmed that scene when the accident happened.

"The plans were for us to film the different sequences at the Luxol grounds. After the accident scene we had to film sequences of motorbikes driving along the road. The bikers wanted us to film the sequences on the road as that would appear more realistic," he said.

Mr Stroud said filming was in progress when the accident happened and the video has been handed over to the inquiring magistrate.

He said the script will be changed following the tragedy.

Police sources said it appeared that three bikes were driving together, two very close to each other and a third several metres behind. It appears that one of the bikes in front nicked the other and both drivers lost control and skidded.

"The accident was just sheer bad luck. Two motorcyclists fell to the ground. One driver rolled a couple of times, stood up and put his bike by the side of the road while the other ended up under an oncoming car and died," the sources said.

"One does not need to be travelling at a high speed to die in an accident.

"If one has an accident in a car at a speed of 40 kilometres per hour one could easily escape unhurt. But in the case of a motorbike it can be a totally different story as the driver or pillion rider is flung off at the same speed at which the bike was travelling," the sources said.