A Canadian guest worker remains in a critical condition in hospital after being seriously injured in a motorbike accident on North Shore Road on Sunday evening.

The 28-year-old was thrown from his rental bike after a head-on collision with a car in the Clay Town area of Hamilton Parish left him unconscious with head injuries and a broken leg.

He is being treated in the intensive care unit of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital following the collision near the junction with Winton Hill Lane at 8.05 p.m.

A woman who was one of the first on the scene after the crash has praised the swift action taken by an off-duty ambulance man who took control of the situation as residents and others rushed to offer assistance to the badly injured man.

?All the neighbours were in shock. The guy was lying on the ground and his face was on the tarmac and he wasn?t moving at all,? said Rebecca Zuill, managing editor of Crown Communications, which publishes RG Magazine.

?Then this guy came and felt for the man?s pulse. We could see that he was breathing. More people gathered around, including a guy who said he worked on the ambulances.

?The situation became more critical because the injured man appeared to have broken his nose and was bleeding profusely. He was getting into difficulties with his breathing and appeared to stop breathing at times,? she said.

?The ambulance emergency guy was speaking on the phone to another medical person, taking advice. We knew we were caught between a rock and a hard place because if we moved the injured man we risked paralysing him, but because he was bleeding so much and was face down he could suffocate.?

Ms Zuill said: ?The emergency technician was amazing and calm and in control of the situation and gave people who were there confidence.?

One of the residents fetched a wooden board from their home and this was used to carefully roll the unconscious man over onto his back so that he could breathe more easily.

Ms Zuill added: ?His breathing was sporadic. The ambulance came and took him away. There was real care and concern by the people who came to help and the emergency technician was superb.?

The driver of the car involved in the collision with the bike was unhurt, as was the driver of a car that was following behind and was involved in a collision with the first car after it was apparently pushed backwards by the force of the initial collision.

A spokeswoman at KEMH confirmed last night the injured Canadian man remained in a critical condition.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the collision to contact the Traffic Enforcement Unit on 299-4265.