A MAN who suffered a broken jaw in a horrific mountain biking accident has thanked the emergency services who rescued him.

Frankie Gray, 24, who grew up on Canvey and attended Cornelius Vermuyden School, was mountain biking on Danbury Common with three friends.

He said: "Ben and I had never been before so we were relying on the experience of the other two, Adam and Todd.

"Todd unfortunately had an accident earlier so Adam stayed with him.

"Ben and I decided to go down the track alone before it got too dark.

"We had come from Colchester so a little inexperience wasn’t going to stop us as we’d been talking about it all week!"

Chelmsford Weekly News:

Although Frankie can't remember the accident, he had a Go Pro head camera on at the time and it captured the whole event.

He suffered a broken jaw, burns all over his body, concussion, and some internal bruising.

He praised his friend Ben Browning, 29, of Black Heath, Colchester, who called an ambulance and gave first aid until the paramedics arrived.

Frankie, who now lives in Rowhedge, added: "I can tell we were travelling at some pace when I lost control as I took off down a very steep drop.

"I landed on my head and shoulder.

"I can’t remember much but piecing it together, I was unconscious for around five mins.

"Ben is first aid trained from work and you can hear him on the video doing exactly what he was told. It just come as if it was second nature to him.

"I was told he called 999, and a first responder arrived followed by an ambulance.

"They were both unable to get to me in the forest and they had to request assistance from the Hazardous Area Rescue Team.

"They arrived along with my family and girlfriend.

Chelmsford Weekly News:

"They used a special off road stretcher to get me out of the forest along with an off road modified ambulance."

Frankie, who is now recovering after the incident about 8pm on Thursday, is very grateful to all the emergency services who helped him.

He said: "Words can not describe how grateful I am to the emergency services for how they helped me on Thursday evening.

"Their speed and efficiency is something to be marvelled at.

"The conditions where far from perfect, being so deep in the forest, yet this did not faze them whatsoever.

"They are real life heroes."