Josh Waters Hospitalized After Crash

Paul Carruthers | July 8, 2010

Australian Superbike Champion Josh Waters crashed yesterday during a Yoshimura Suzuki test at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California, and suffered a severe concussion and a collapsed lung.”He ran off the track between [turns] eight and nine and it looks like he rode in the dirt for a long way before it threw him off,” crew chief Peter Doyle said en route to the hospital this morning. “He was unconscious and it looks like his helmet strap cut into his throat a bit and that bled into his lung and one lung collapsed. That’s the main thing now and he obviously has a pretty severe concussion.”Waters was airlifted to Antelope Valley Hospital where he remains today. Doyle says he’s been stabilized and has undergone numerous tests, including an MRI.”Everything appears to be okay,” Doyle said. “He’s stable and obviously sedated, but that’s because they have a tube down his throat. They told us last night that they would start to wean him off the sedation and remove the tube. As of last night, they told us there would be no long-term problems and that the lung is the bigger issue. We’ll know a lot more later today.”Waters is scheduled to replace the injured Blake Young at the Mid-Ohio (July 17-18) and Laguna Seca (July 24-25) rounds of the AMA American Superbike Series on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki.

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.