Motorcyclist badly hurt after misjudging corner

Police temporarily closed Whakapirau Rd yesterday for the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter to evacuate the injured man.

A motorcyclist who hurtled through a fence after misjudging a corner is nursing two major broken bones.

The man in his 50s had been travelling along Whakapirau Rd yesterday about 12.30pm when he came off his bike, St John Hawke's Bay district-operations manager Stephen Smith said.

"He missed a corner, went wide through a fence - he's fractured his arm and his femur."

An ambulance attended the rural scene - but after assessing the patient, called in the Lowe Corporation's Rescue Helicopter to transport him to Hawke's Bay Hospital.

A spokeswoman said last night he was in a stable condition.

Police temporarily closed the road as the man was placed on a stretcher and loaded into the chopper.

"It wasn't blocked for long, just enough time for the helicopter to land in the middle of the road," a spokeswoman from the Police Eastern District Command Centre said.

The crash happened on a sweeping bend in an area which has been a hotspot for accidents in the past.