10 Worst Motocross Crashes of All Time

Common Motocross injuries are inevitable. But some of the worst Motocross crashes can cause fatal injuries that may lead to death or end the career. With the law of physics, dirt bike riders show stunts such as rolling in high above the ground, tackling the sharp turns, which are exciting and dangerous at the same time.

However, today we are not going through the Motocross or Supercross exciting moments. Rather we have listed the 10 worst dirt bike crashes that happened in Motocross or Supercross events and which are brutal.

List of the 10 Worst Motocross Crashes of All Time

Here we have complied a list of the most brutal Motocross crashes, which could have been career ending or life threatening.

10. Ricky Carmichael & James Stewart At Unadilla in 2005

However, this may not be the most insane Supercross crash of all time, but it is iconic as it could have ended Carmichael’s career. It was Stewart’s rookie season in big class racing. At 2005 Unadilla National, Carmichael got an early lead, and James Stewart was just behind him. So, Stewart was in a rush for a while to take over Ricky Carmichael.

At some point, Stewart looked for a jump and landed on Carmichael’s back, and both of them were down. However, Carmichael could stand and race again, but Stewart was unconscious.  

09. Greg Albertyn At the Houston Supercross in 1996

Greg Albertyn has a long history of crashes, but the crash at Houston Supercross in 1996 was one of the worst. However, Albertyn won several world titles from 1992 to 1994. However, he found Supercross difficult, which causes all those crashes.

In the Huston crash, Greg Albertyn had to leave his dirt bike while he was in midair due to a huge quad. However, he has saved himself by abandoning the bike and ending up landing on his leg and falling down to the ground. As per the announcer, Albertyn’s crash was so scary.

08. Sebastien Tortelli’s Crash at the Motocross Des Nations in Brazil in 1999

In 1999’s standard, this crash was almost brutal if not life-threatening. At that time, Tortelli was one of the top racers in the Motocross world. In that particular race in Brazil, he lost control of his bike and resulted in it flipping multiple times. However, Tortelli abandoned the bike, and he flipped on the track too, and the bike hit him once when it was flipping. However, it didn’t hurt, and Tortelli joined the race right after the crash.

07. Mikael Pichon’s Crash at the Atlanta Supercross in 1996

During that time, Mikael Pichon was a dominant racer in the 125cc East Supercross event. However, the crash at Atlanta could have sent him out of the tournament. But, Pichon survived the crash without having any injury, and at the end of the season, he became the champion.

On that particular crash. Pichon had to abandon the bike in midair, and he landed on the ground safely. 

06. Chad Reed’s Crash at Millville in 2011

Chad Reed ends up jumping through a spectacular crash. Chad Reed on super motion while he lost traction while jumping. However, he had left his bike 20-30 feet in the air. And, both the bike and Reed landed out of the track. But, surprisingly, nothing had happened to Reed and his bike. As soon as he landed on the ground, he got on the bike and joined the track.

05. David Pingree Crashed at the Phoenix Supercross in 2002

Have you ever seen a bike snap in half? Well, it is not usual, but it had happened with David Pingree at the Phoenix Supercross, which was one of the bad Supercross crashes. Pingree was winning, and he was on the last lap of the heat. He was moving forward through the little bumps with bus KTM. Pingree’s bike was claimed to malfunction When Pingree was on the triple. He jumped high, and the dirt bike broke into the half when he landed from the top with high pressure. However, David Pingree got lucky, and he had not faced any of the worst Motocross injuries.

04. Mike Alessi at Red Bud AMA National in 2008

Mike Alessi suffered several fatal injuries due to the severe crash at the Red Bud raceway. As a result of the crash, Alessi broke both of his shoulder blades, bruising a lung, broke a rib, and a severe concussion. He was hospitalized and sat the rest of the season.

The crash occurred when Alessi did his ski-jump. However, he lost traction and threw himself into the face on the ground. All the dirt bikers were behind him, and they couldn’t control him. So, 4 of the racers went over his unconscious body, and 2 of the riders directly hit the body.

Seemingly it was the end of his career, but Alessi was able to get back on track in the following year.

03. Ryan Morais & Trey Canard at the Los Angeles Supercross in 2012

It was one of the worst Supercross crashes, which ended Ryan Morais’ career and almost finished Trey Canard’s Supercross career. The crash happened in the third round of Supercross 2012, where Canard failed to jump the first triple and collected a tuff block on the corner. Canard slowed down his bike, but in his behind, Ryan Morais successfully jumped the triple and landed directly on Canard’s back.

However, Morais faced severe injuries, which includes breaking his ribs, upper and lower jaws. His cervical spinal nerves C1 C2 C6-7 T1 also fractured. Ryan Morais announced his retirement after that incident. On the other hand, Canard took 12 months to recover and returned to the track in the 2013 season after surviving T10, T11, and T12 vertebrae injuries.

02. Travis Pastrana at Lake Havasu in 1999

Pastrana is insane as he came back after an almost life threatening event. At the age of 14 in 1999, Travis Pastrana faced the most brutal injuries, which ended up having a unique injury. The force he had while landing on the ground, ended up his upper part of the body moved down into the pelvis. Prior to that injury, Travis already had 8 surgeries and 18 broken bones. However, Travis could walk again after 6 months of his injuries after the insertion of two titanium screws.

01. Doug Henry at the Budds Creek in 1995

Perhaps it is the most horrific Motocross crash of all time. Doug made a mistake while flying from the corner and slipped back on the seat. However, he grabbed a handful of throttle while flying but crashed from 30-40 from the midair. That crash has broken his back. However, he did come back to the race after 8 months after having numerous surgeries. However, in 2007 Henry broke his back one more time, which resulted in paralysis.

So far, these are the 10 worst Motocross crashes we found horrific. However, we will add more if more terrible crashes occur in future.