A female rider did not even have time to slow down before she hit the back of a van yesterday.

The accident occurred shortly before 11.30 a.m. on St. David's Road. The Royal Gazette was told that the rider, caught in the middle of a downpour, did not see that a Government van in front of her had stopped on the side of the road.

She collided with the rear of the van, shattering the back window. Fire personnel arrived on the scene and placed the girl inside the van to protect her from the rain as they waited for the ambulance. The ambulance had first stopped at the airport to pick up a gravely ill passenger from a Canadian charter flight that was diverted to Bermuda.

The accident victim and the airline passenger were both conveyed to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.