The Scots founder of the infamous Comanchero outlaw biker gang has told how he dodged death in a horror road crash.
William ‘Jock’ Ross, who was born in Glasgow, was left in a coma last year after being thrown from his Harley Davidson in Australia by a 4X4, which was allegedly being driven by the daughter of a renowned brain surgeon.
Now, almost four months on, 76-year-old Ross has told of his miraculous recovery from the Sydney smash.
He said: “I had enough time to go ‘oh f**k’, I saw it coming.
“I was dead. They didn’t think I would make it to hospital. I’m lucky to be alive.”
Ross - who was jailed for his part in the Milperra massacre which left seven dead in 1984 - was left fighting for life when he was placed in an induced coma with leg, head and internal injuries in September last year.
Nicola Teo, 24, is charged with driving her Toyota LandCruiser down the wrong side of the road for up to 200m before hitting Ross in Sydney’s Hawkesbury region.
The grandfather-of-12, who grew up in the Gorbals, is now on crutches to take the weight off his leg, which had to be rebuilt with titanium plates.
He spoke to the Australian press of his recovery during spending three months in intensive care, after medics had put him into an induced coma to operate on his leg, hip and to stop bleeding from internal injuries.
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Muscles and veins from his arm were used to rebuild his torn-apart leg, while surgeons added titanium plates to both his hip and leg.
Ross said: “It may look like I’m walking but I’m not 100 per cent.”
“I was a big bloke, if you want to lose weight, be in a car crash.”
Ms Teo, daughter of surgeon Charlie Teo, faced court in October and faces jail for charges of dangerous driving and negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm.
She was granted conditional bail and is due back in court again in February.
In September 1984, Ross’ gang took on rivals the Bandidos in a bloody brawl which left an innocent 15-year-old girl among the dead in what was then the worst outbreak of biker violence in the world.
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In 2015, he told the Record of his tough upbringing and how his obsession with bikes was rooted in Glasgow’s Gorbals, where his lorry driver father took him out in his sidecar.
He said at the time: “In the old Glasgow days you never backed off, that’s how you survived.”
At 17, he joined the Army and spent seven years clearing land mines before emigrating to Australia and forming his gang.
The Comancheros were armed with pump-action shotguns, machetes and baseball bats when they clashed with the Bandidos at a biker meet and greet outside a tavern.
Four Comancheros and two Bandidos died. Ross was seriously injured in the brawl and was one of 43 men charged with six counts of murder, later reduced to manslaughter. He served five years in jail.
He left the bike gang in 2003 and has worked as a fire captain for 20 years.
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