Originally Posted by GRedner
Youch! Sorry to hear about his injuries
I'm glad nothing was permanently damaged, except for the bike.
Does he remember the accident? Some sequence of events leading up to it? A fork shouldn't just fall apart unless its been subjected to some trauma, and a spoke breaking spontaneously is not enough to count. Is it possible the fork had been damaged beforehand? Even just whacked into a doorframe by accident? How closely did you inspect the fork itself before you guys left?
[edit] sestivers' suggestion makes a lot of sense. If something solid was stuck through the front wheel, it would have impacted on the spokes and the fork, which not coincidentally were the two things that broke. Were there branches in the area? Something that could have fallen across his path? Did he have a pump on his frame, which might have detached and fallen into the wheel?
Thanks for your comments. No pump on the frame. No branches in that section of road. It was clear. I didn't see anything wrong with the fork prior to departure - however, I didn't do a high resolution inspection. I checked the front brakes for alignment and did release the front wheel and re tighten as it wasn't dead center. We cleaned off some mud on the rim just after we set off as it was catching on the brake, but the wheel spun round fine after we cleared it off. It seemed to be working fine.