Dane Searls dead at 23

Dane Searls, 1988-2011
(image credit: BMX Main)

Australian BMX star Dane Searls, who was left in a comatose state after he tried to jump from a nightclub balcony into a swimming pool, has died in hospital according to reports.

Searls was celebrating a new world record in which rode a series of ramps - 9m, 12m, 15m and 18m, each said to have been two storeys high - when the accident happened. Witnesses said that he misjudged the distance between the balcony and the pool, diving head-first onto concrete. He suffered serious head and spinal injuries.

More at the Sydney Morning Herald (including video).