The Southern 100 road-racing event faced significant disruptions on its opening night on Monday following a serious crash at Ballakeighan, the first corner of the 4.25-mile circuit.

The session was red flagged following a crash that involved three bikes just minutes in to the newcomers sighting laps.

Following the incident being cleared, and when it looked set for practices to restart, the session was further disrupted after Manx Care informed organisers of ‘capacity issues’ at Noble’s Hospital.

In a statement issued by Southern 100 organisers at around 9pm, a spokesperson said: ‘Due to the ongoing capacity issues at Noble’s Hospital we have been left with no choice but to cancel the practice session this evening.’

The arms-length health care provider confirmed that one rider, critically injured in the crash, was transferred to the Walton Centre for Neurosciences via Coastguard Search & Rescue Helicopter at 10pm.

It’s now been confirmed that it was Tralee competitor Anthony O’Carroll.

Aiden Cleary from Draperstown in Northern Ireland suffered an ankle injury and has since been discharged.

Scariff rider Jacque Foley was involved in the crash but was uninjured.

This morning (Tuesday) Manx Care has issued a statement to Isle of Man Today clarifying the situation.

Manx Care has said they have a well-established system for assessing the ‘readiness of hospital services to accept casualties from racing incidents that is operated during all motorsport events’.

Manx Care added that after clarifying with organisers before the practice session that the hospital was capable to respond to casualties, two extremely unwell patients unrelated to the racing were admitted to the Emergency Department via ambulance, both requiring a full Medical Emergency Team to treat them.

Despite this increased activity across Noble’s Hospital initially the team felt that we were still capable to respond to casualties coming from the Southern 100.

However following the red flag incident an ‘overall assessment was undertaken of workload within the Emergency Department and across the wider hospital’ and following this confirmed that it ‘wouldn’t be able to safely care for another trauma case alongside the other patients in ED requiring urgent care’.

The full statement from Manx Care:

‘Manx Care has a well-established system for assessing the readiness of hospital services to accept casualties from racing incidents that is operated during all motorsport events, including Southern 100.

‘Prior to the commencement of yesterday’s practice session, the assessment was undertaken during a formal ‘Safe To Start Huddle’ which was attended by representatives of all departments who would be asked to respond in the case of a trauma case being admitted – these include the Emergency Department (ED), Orthopaedics, Operating Theatres, Air Ambulance, the Isle of Man Ambulance Service as well as the site management team.

‘At the time of assessment, it was felt the hospital was ready for practicing at the Southern 100 to commence, despite ED being extremely busy and the Intensive Care Unit having one bed available – this was communicated to race organisers.

‘Between the huddle taking place and the commencement of practicing, two extremely unwell patients were admitted to ED via Ambulance, both requiring a full Medical Emergency Team to treat them.

‘Despite this increased activity across Noble’s, the team felt that we were still capable to respond to casualties coming from the Southern 100.

‘Following the red flag incident and the receipt of two trauma cases were inbound from the first practice session, one of which was extremely unwell, this required the formation of two major trauma teams to care for them – the Trauma Team is formed of several specialties including Emergency Department doctors and nurses, Anaesthesia, Air Ambulance, Orthopaedics and Radiology.

‘An overall assessment was undertaken of workload within ED and across the wider hospital and whether we would be able to safely care for one or more trauma cases should there be another incident on the S100 course.

‘The discussion between the Executive Director on call (Oliver Radford) and ED Consultant In Charge was that we wouldn’t be able to safely care for another trauma case alongside the other patients in ED requiring urgent care.

‘As a result we took the difficult decision to request from the race organisers that no further practicing take place yesterday evening due to the situation in the hospital.’

Manx Care added that there was ‘no impact on any of the patients receiving care at Noble’s Hospital last night’.