Liam McCracken’s first clear thought after waking from a devastating bus accident was that he was glad to be alive. Three years later, the 25-year-old Liverpool fighter is preparing to compete for a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in Las Vegas.
Liam McCracken’s life-threatening bus accident
McCracken was running near his home in Liverpool when he stepped into the road without properly checking for oncoming traffic. He was struck by a bus and dragged underneath it for 18 metres (60ft) over seven seconds before the vehicle stopped.
The Briton says he did not see the bus until the final moment. A couple who witnessed the collision found him unconscious and bleeding heavily beneath the vehicle and believed he was dead.
McCracken says he might have bled to death before an ambulance arrived if not for passers-by on the main road, including a paramedic who had life-saving equipment in their car.
The accident left him with four fractures in his back, two slipped discs in his neck, three broken ribs, a broken pelvis, a broken nose, a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, a torn meniscus and multiple other wounds.
For a long time, McCracken feared he might never walk or compete again. On Tuesday, however, he will fight Mexican lightweight Silvestre Sanchez.
“For the first few days I wasn’t caring about anything else other than the fact that I was alive,” McCracken tells BBC Sport.
“I have a little daughter and apparently the people who found me said that was the first thing I kept speaking about when I regained consciousness. “I kept asking about my little girl while I was on the floor getting seen by people. The main thing was I was glad to be alive.”
Recovery after the crash
McCracken describes the accident and his recovery as some of the most difficult moments of his life, although he recalls the experience with good humour.
“My girl had just turned one. One of the funniest things is she wasn’t walking at the time and literally a day or two after it happened she started walking. I stopped being able to walk while she’d just learned to walk,” says McCracken.
McCracken was unconscious beneath the bus and being burned by its engine. The driver could not switch off the ignition because the suspension would have dropped, potentially causing the vehicle to crush him.
A pedestrian helped the driver move the bus away from McCracken before anyone could treat him.
“A woman was with me holding my hand on the floor and then loads of people started coming over,” said McCracken.
“They came over and saw to me straight away which basically saved my life because I was losing a lot of blood. I had to get multiple blood transfusions.”
At the time of the accident, McCracken had won five of his six professional fights and was being tipped as a future UFC star. Reaching that goal, though, required a long and difficult road back to competition.
