While riding around the Ribble Valley this morning, I heard a yell and a horrible scraping as a motorbike hit a Land-Rover pulling out of his farm. As I rounded the corner, I saw the bike and rider slide into and onto a verge and hit the bushes at the side of the road. As I rode up, the farmer had jumped out and was standing there like one of Lewis's gawping down at his handiwork. The guy on the bike was comparatively alright although it was obvious his right leg was broken at the shin. His head remained in the bushes and I didn't get to see his face the whole time I was there.
Fortunately he was conscious, not bleeding (only some patchy, dark venous blood anyway) and his neck was fine so we had him stay where he was and lifted the bike off his left leg which was fine. He took his helmet off inside the bushes and his left hand was fine but he complained of a lot of pain in his right hand. It turned out he'd hit the Land-Rover with his right leg hence the damage to his right side. I thought he was being quite nice to the farmer who'd begun to regain his composure once he realised the guy wasn't too badly hurt. It became obvious the farmer hadn't seen the guy on the bright red motorbike when he'd pulled out from his farm and had given the bike no room to get round him.
In an effort to keep him talking and keep his mind off things, the injured guy told me he only had another 2 miles to go to get home(!) and said he was 52 and this was his first ever motorbike accident. He was very concerned about his bike but it looked structurally sound to me apart from the outer shell which was cracked and broken in many places.
One thing that got me though was the time it took the ambulance to arrive. We were just outside Bolton by Bowland and the ambulance took at least 18 minutes to get there from Clitheroe. Once they'd got there, the police came screaming round like the flamin' cavalry demanding to know who'd seen what and generally getting on everyone's nerves. Another bike rider had stopped to see what was going on so me and him gave them our addresses, wished the injured guy well and went off to Wigglesworth together.
Fortunately he was conscious, not bleeding (only some patchy, dark venous blood anyway) and his neck was fine so we had him stay where he was and lifted the bike off his left leg which was fine. He took his helmet off inside the bushes and his left hand was fine but he complained of a lot of pain in his right hand. It turned out he'd hit the Land-Rover with his right leg hence the damage to his right side. I thought he was being quite nice to the farmer who'd begun to regain his composure once he realised the guy wasn't too badly hurt. It became obvious the farmer hadn't seen the guy on the bright red motorbike when he'd pulled out from his farm and had given the bike no room to get round him.
In an effort to keep him talking and keep his mind off things, the injured guy told me he only had another 2 miles to go to get home(!) and said he was 52 and this was his first ever motorbike accident. He was very concerned about his bike but it looked structurally sound to me apart from the outer shell which was cracked and broken in many places.
One thing that got me though was the time it took the ambulance to arrive. We were just outside Bolton by Bowland and the ambulance took at least 18 minutes to get there from Clitheroe. Once they'd got there, the police came screaming round like the flamin' cavalry demanding to know who'd seen what and generally getting on everyone's nerves. Another bike rider had stopped to see what was going on so me and him gave them our addresses, wished the injured guy well and went off to Wigglesworth together.
