AN adventurous Bromsgrove man is lucky to be alive after a hit and run tractor driver ran him over while he was cycling in Turkey.

Andy Taylor, of Pennine Road, whose adventures were featured in the Advertiser/Messenger last month, reached 5,126 miles on his mammoth round-the-world trip before he was knocked off his bike by the tractor and run over by its one-and-a-half ton trailer.

This week, speaking exclusively to the Advertiser/Messenger from his hospital bed, Mr Taylor told how doctors said the muscles in his stomach acted as a cushion, easing the damage caused in the accident on September 24.

They said if the trailer had hit him any lower he would have had to have had his legs amputated and if it had been any higher it would have killed him.

The thirty-one-year-old, who cycled through Luxembourg, Germany and Hungary, suffered a ruptured urethra which had to be stitched to his stomach, two fractures to his pelvis and cuts and bruises.

From his bed at Worcester Royal Infirmary he said: "I managed to text my mom and dad on my mobile to let them know about the accident the next day.

"But for six days after that I didn't actually speak to them because there were no phones in the hospital.

"I was then transferred to a private hospital a week later, which was heaven, and got in touch with them to put their minds at rest."

Mr Taylor was flown back from Turkey -- the accident happened 60 miles north-west of Marmaris -- and was transferred to the Worcester hospital on October 5 where he is now recovering and planning his next trip.

He said: "I'm not sure when they will let me out but I am already looking into how far you can cycle along the Great Wall of China.

"I feel as though I have failed this time so I've got to try again."

Police and army troops later apprehended the tractor driver.