Missing Biker Found In Thorne Ditch

18 September 2012, 17:20 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A missing biker has been found alive in a roadside ditch in Thorne, three days after he crashed.

Humberside Police said Anthony Margrave spent three nights in the open near Thorne as a major search operation was conducted to find him.

The 40 year old, from Goole, is now being treated at Doncaster Royal Infirmary for injuries including broken ribs and hypothermia.

Mr Margrave, a concrete operative, was reported missing by his girlfriend, Katie Bridgeford, on Wednesday last week after he failed to turn up for work.

His sister, Sharon Margrave, said he was not yet "out of the woods'' but he was fighting to recover.

"For all of us, it has been a week of hell,'' she said.

"I thought he was dead, I really thought that was it. There was no other way out of it. I really thought they were looking for a body.''

Ms Margrave said her sister called her to tell her the good news.

"I can't describe the feeling,'' she said.

"It's just a miracle that he survived for so long. I'm so proud of him and the way he's fighting now. He's not giving up at all. He's been so lucky.''

Inspector Rob Cocker said his team found his phone hadn’t been used in the 24 hours before his partner reporting him missing.

They also found the phone had not moved from the area between Thorne and Goole which is large and sparsely populated. He said traffic officers checked roads and ditches with the help of the force helicopter.

Two full days of searching began of rivers, reservoirs, fields, ditches, houses, gardens, and any other likely location he could have been in the Thorne, Rawcliffe and Snaith area.

He was found 6ft down a ditch, lying in water between East Cowick and Thorne. He was conscious and breathing, they said.

Officers said they believe the motorcyclist collided with a metal signpost on the off-side of the carriageway.