A cyclist from North Wales has been seriously injured after he crashed into a length of wire stretched across a cycle path.

Ian Davies, aged 41 and from Pentre in Deeside, was knocked out as a result of the crash, which resulted in him being thrown over the handlebars on his bike, hitting the ground head-first, reports the Daily Post.

The impact left him concussed, and he also sustained a broken collarbone and three fractured ribs in the incident, which happened at around 4pm on Tuesday 21 February on the Chester Millennium Greenway near Deeside Industrial Park.

The trap, which was at waist height, was made from wire from an adjacent fence and according to Mr Davies follows a similar hazard in the same location around three weeks ago, with no-one injured on that occasion.

He told the newspaper: “The next thing I know I’m on the floor and waking up surrounded by three or four people telling me not to move.

“My helmet was split and I had grazes on my legs but at that stage I didn’t know what had happened. As I came round, I began feeling pain under my cycling top.”

Mr Davies was attended to by a passing runner who has first aid training, as well as a colleague who was riding by and who happened to be a colleague of his at the Airbus plant in Broughton.

Due to industrial action, no ambulance was available and instead Mr Davies’s wife came with a car, with the cyclist being helped 300 metres from the location where the crash happened to the vehicle, before being driven to the Countess of Chester Hospital for treatment.

“It’s quite frightening when you think what could have happened,” he said. “I’m quite a big, fit, middle-aged guy and I dread to think if a kid had been cycling there: at the height it was, it’s quite likely the wire would have caught them around their necks.

“I don’t think people realise the consequences of doing something like this. It could have killed someone. It’s worrying to think of the lengths some people will go to steal a bike or to film an accident for their own amusement.”

He added: “Ironically, yesterday was my first outdoor leisure ride of the year. I’ve had accidents before, on mountain bikes, but I’ve always kept riding.

“In a way, I’m quite glad I don’t remember anything about this accident – it will make it easier when it comes to getting back on the bike.”

Moments before the crash, Mr Davies had overtaken another cyclist, a 66-year-old woman named Val, who said: “One second he was cycling past me, the next he was on the floor. I thought, ‘Oh God, what’s happened here?’

“He was travelling quite fast and hit the wire with some force, landing on his head and shoulder. I dread to think what would have happened if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet.

“I think he was knocked out cold as, initially, he was unresponsive. After a while, he was able to say his name and date of birth but he couldn’t remember what had happened.

“He overtook me just before we reached the corner where the wire was,” she added. “If he hadn’t gone past me, it would have been me going over that wire.”

Officers from North Wales Police attended the scene and the force confirmed that the wire had been removed. They added that a witness had seen three youths on bikes heading away from the location where the crash took place shortly before it happened.

Anyone who witnessed the information, or who has information about it, is asked to get in touch via the non-emergency telephone number 101, quoting reference A026360.

We’ve reported on a number of incidents here on road.cc in  which cyclists have been targeted by wire, branches or even pieces of wood with nails protruding from them on trails and bike paths, often resulting in injury to the rider.