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Rider down - What would you do?
As most bikers know, you should never attempt to remove the crash helmet of a motorcyclist who has been injured in a road traffic accident. Doing so could exacerbate any spinal injury the rider may have suffered, which could lead to serious paralysis or even death.
But there are times when removing the helmet is unavoidable if the injured riders life is to be saved, such as when he or she has stopped breathing and you have to perform emergency resuscitation.
Imagine that you are out with a group of friends enjoying a run in the country when suddenly one of the bikes is involved in a serious collision. The bike is a crumpled mess and the rider and pillion are sprawled on the road badly injured. Would you know what to do?
OK, some of you may have had first aid training, but one of the injured riders begins to go into shock and starts vomiting, now the helmet must come off or the injured person will choke to death on their own vomit. How do you remove the helmet without risking severe or even fatal damage to the vertebrae of the neck? Would you even know how to spot the warning signs of somebody going into shock? Would you know how to make the best use of the people who are with you to help in saving the lives of your friends? One of the injured people has copious amounts of blood gushing from a wound in the leg, what do you do?
Isn’t it time that there were special courses to teach you exactly what to do in the event of a motorcycle accident?
Well the good news is that the St John Ambulance have now developed a course specifically aimed at motorcycle accidents.
John Byrne (NABD Treasurer) and myself were invited (with a dozen or so other people from various motorcycle organisations) to attend the first of these courses at St John House in Manchester, and although I am already qualified to administer first aid I had no idea how little use I would have been at the scene of a serious motorcycle accident.
The St John ‘First Aid for Motorcyclists’ course is a one day (6 hour) course which covers all of the questions I have raised, and more, including Accident management, Emergency services liaison, Mechanism of injury, Basic life support, Spinal and airway management, Movement of casualty, Bleeding, Shock, and Methods of helmet removal (including how to use a fantastic piece of kit called a ‘Hat’s off helmet removal kit’). It is very much a ‘hands on’ course rather that a classroom based thing where you get all the theory and no practice.
This is exactly the same training that is given to professionals who deal with motorcycle accidents, though you don’t need to have any prievious first aid training.
St John’s have developed this course based on pioneering work by Andrew Sulivan of Lancashire Ambulance and it teaches you what you need to know if you are to keep an injured biker alive until professional medical help arrives. The courses are very professionally done in a comfortable atmosphere and our instructors (Graeme & Steven) were excellent and gave us all confidence in what we were learning.
There are six of these courses planned at present alternating between Manchester and Oldham, after which they will hopefully be available on a national basis. The course costs £70.00 plus VAT (price includes a basic first aid kit, a ‘Hat’s off’ kit and a certificate which is valid for 3 years) and I believe it is worth every penny.
There is already talk in government that if motorcycle accident fatalities are not reduced significantly over the next few years, they will bring in legislation (no doubt draconian in nature) to combat it. The way I see it if enough bikers take this type of training, we will be able to bring down the number of fatalities ourselves without any legislative intervention.
The NABD will certainly be looking at sponsoring many of it’s rep’s to do this course and I will be recommending to MAG and BMF that they do the same.
I would also encourage all rider training schools, IAM groups, courier companies, and bike clubs to invest in this form of training as it will undoubtedly save many bikers lives and save even more bikers from avoidable long-term disability.
I would also encourage those people and clubs who organise events and runs to give this some very serious consideration, If you are bringing large numbers of bikers together you owe them a duty of care, and this type of training is tailor-made to suit our needs as motorcyclists.
I hope I never have to use what I have learned on this course, but if the situation does arise I am now able to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
The value of helping to save just one biker’s life can never be measured in money.
For further information on the First Aid for Motorcyclists courses contact St John’s on 0161 225 2764 or visit www.sja.org.uk
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