AN 18-YEAR-OLD is today battling serious head injuries after crashing his scooter. A spokesman at Southampton General Hospital said this morning that Miles Gavey remained in a critical but stable condition in the neurological unit.

He crashed near Pentagon Conservatories in the Grand Bouet at about 8.45pm on Saturday and is believed to have hit a gate pillar.

That was one of three major incidents over the weekend which saw one man die on a boat trip from Guernsey to Jersey and an alleged knifing in the Forest.

Ambulance crews were on the scene of the scooter accident within five minutes.

The rider was taken to the Princess Elizabeth Hospital under police escort and flown to Bournemouth at about 4am yesterday.

He was then transferred to Southampton General.

Sam Dodd, 18, was at a house party near the incident.

‘There was a big crash outside, just feet away,’ he said.

‘We jumped up and came out. There was a boy, around 17, lying on the floor, in shorts and a T-shirt.’

He said the rider was unconscious when he got there and had apparently serious knee and arm injuries.

‘I checked his pulse. There was a few of us there, and an off-duty nurse, so she stepped in.’

The scooter, a 50cc Aprilia, was travelling towards Pitronnerie Road traffic lights and carried on to hit a blue car parked just off the road in front of a house.

A woman driving a car in the opposite direction is believed to have witnessed the crash and called the emergency services.

Police do not think that any other vehicles were involved and have confirmed that the rider was aged 18.

They closed the road to traffic while they investigated the incident. One officer took photographs of the scene.

Pedestrians were allowed through on the pavement in front of Pentagon.

One said that although the corners had been an accident black spot in the past, things had improved over the last four or five years.

Police have appealed for anybody who saw the black and yellow scooter, which has a distinctive black-on-white number plate, being ridden in the area around the time of the accident to contact them on 725111.