Horrible scene, Greenhow Hill, Pateley Bridge

[ufkacbln]

Any expert will tell you that your ability is compromised by the equipment and facilities that you have and that the idea of someone rushing to the scene and saving lives by performing heroic feats is restricted to Holby City and Casualty scripts

Most of us can use common sense to make someone feel better and more comfortable, and making sure that help is on its way



Reflect honestly on your actions and ask yourself these questions:

1. Was there anything I did that made the patient worse?
2. Was there anything I did that improved the patient's chances?
3. Overall were my actions beneficial

Preventing further injury, or the injury of others by controlling traffic and stopping that young driver , obtaining help and just being there are all positives, and I simply cannot see any negative aspect to your actions

.. and even if the worst outcome happens, the relatives will have the knowledge that their loved one was not alone on a bleak moor, but in the company of someone who cared, and you have no idea how important that small fact is

 

[pawl]

It was horrible. I am trying not to think about the actual injuries, but after seeing at least
4 other unconscious cyclists lying at the roadside on the Tour de Yorkshire sportive recently, this is starting to make me more nervous about cycling. Precisely why I do not normally come into this section of CC!

I have to say that most of the people at the scene were very helpful and/or patient. There was just one young driver who tried to overtake the long queue of stationary vehicles. I blocked his way and explained why I could not let him proceed. He just accepted it and went back down the hill.

Now that I have had time to think about it, I am sure that the emergency services were indeed despatched pretty quickly judging by when they arrived. It is just that everything seems to be happening so slowly in such a situation.

One or two of the people at the scene seemed to know what to do but I felt pretty out of my depth. I squeezed the cyclist's hand and told him that help was on its way but I am pretty sure that he would not have known what was happening. If the final outcome is really bad, then at least he didn't suffer. Stilll, bloody hell - what a terrible thing to happen on a lovely evening ride in the sunshine!

W

rest assured @ColinJ that you did everything you could and couldn't have handled it better, many people would have panicked and run about like a headless chicken with out a clue what to do only making matters worse! even though there are many people that claim that they would keep calm and be fine in such a situation and blood doesn't affect them etc when actually plonked in the middle of it all in real life they turn out near on useless

hoping for a good strong, speedy recovery for the poor chap on the bike. hopefully it won't turn out to be the worst case. but either way i'm sure you made that tough moment just that bit easier for the poor chap even if he wasn't quite sure what was happening, the worst thing when you are the injured in such a case is to feel alone or ignored. the best thing is to have a brave person like you @ColinJ to comfort you
Cheers Ed

Sounds very stressful indeed.

Hope you're ok too.

The Air ambulance does indeed do a fab job. Amazing that it's funded by charitable donations really.

I had been out to Harrogate today for my stepdaughter's graduation ceremony. Afterwards, she, her husband, her mum (my ex) and I went out for a celebration meal in Nidderdale. We were in good spirits after the meal and I suggested driving back by a scenic route. So, we were heading up the steep ascent out of Pateley Bridge on the way over to Grassington and I had just commented on how dodgy the descent was and that there had been many serious accidents involving cyclists there when suddenly the driver of a 4x4 towing a caravan ahead of us braked hard and stopped.

We pulled up and got out to see what the problem was and saw a cyclist lying unconscious in the road. He looked in a very bad way. I felt as though I had jinxed the poor man.

A couple from another car ran over to him and were trying to decide what to do. The driver of the 4x4 was already on his phone to the emergency services. I went forward and the driver asked if I would take over the call while he tried to help the cyclist.

The man at the call centre was just trying to do his job, but I was getting frustrated with the delay that his questions were causing. I told him that it looked very serious but he insisted on trying to narrow down the exact location, asking for names of nearby buildings and so on. I told him to just get the emergency services on the way. It was on the B-road from Pateley Bridge to Grassington, about 1 mile up the hill. A quick look at an OS map would show exactly where that is - there would be no confusion from that description.

Anyway ... eventually a police car arrived and I passed the call over to one of the 2 police officers. The other joined the helpers who had got the victim in the recovery position.

Some people had gone up the hill to stop traffic coming down towards the scene. I went down the hill to explain to other stranded drivers what was happening and to try and keep the road clear for the ambulance when it arrived. I was just explaining to a young woman that an ambulance was on its way when it came tearing up the hill towards us, overtaking the stationary traffic. I motioned to her to pull forwards to the nearside verge but she panicked and instead reversed back out into the road, forcing the ambulance to stop. It was all very stressful ...

Everything seemed to be taking forever, though it was probably only a few seconds delay here and there. We got her forwards out of the way and then the ambulance got through to the accident scene.

I had already been thinking that it looked like the Yorkshire Air Ambulance might be needed when I heard it in the distance. It suddenly shot overhead and the pilot did a loop around the scene, trying to find a safe place to land. The terrain was not ideal, but he managed to put the chopper down in a field not too far from the victim.

At that point, one of the police officers came down the line of stationary vehicles, thanked us for our help and suggested that we all u-turned and head back down the hill to find alternative routes away since our help was no longer needed and we could not continue up the hill.

I am not 100% sure what happened, but I don't think a vehicle was involved. The incident took place on a very steep, tight, treacherous-looking bend so it might have been due to rider error, or it could have been caused by some problem with the road surface or with the bike.

I'm really hoping that the injuries were not as serious as they looked and that the rider makes a full recovery. If he does, I will try to contact him and explain to him what happened.

Strangely enough, I washed three bags worth of surplus clothes only yesterday and donated them to a Yorkshire Air Ambulance collection. I thought then what a great job it does and how we should all support such services.

Let's be careful out there, folks ...

Well done Colin.

 

[ColinJ]

I was just searching for news. All I could find was a short report from North Yorkshire police saying that the cyclist had been taken to hospital with serious head injuries.

I found another report saying that a cyclist died after crashing into a tree on the descent in 2013. It is on the Way Of The Roses cycle route so a lot of cyclists will ride it. I checked the website for the route and it does warn about this descent ...

Unfortunately, going down Greenhow Hill has caught a few cyclists out and NYCC and Sustrans have produced a leaflet to let you know what lies in store. Have a look at this video too ...

Please don't underestimate this demanding hill and remember that descending in the wet can impair your braking.

I have a vague recollection that @vernon had a near miss on that descent a few years ago?

 

[vernon]

I have a vague recollection that @vernon had a near miss on that descent a few years ago?

Yes i did

I was braking from the hoods, hit a bump which transferred my weight forwards onto my wrists and the bars rotated forwards leaving me momentarily resting on the bars with my forearms. I managed to contort and regain a semblance of control and used a verge to scrub off the last few mph.

I upgraded the brakes on my Galaxy to Froggleg CX callipers after that scare.

I had an extended rest in Pately Bridge to gather my wits.

 

[CopperCyclist]

The man at the call centre was just trying to do his job, but I was getting frustrated with the delay that his questions were causing. I told him that it looked very serious but he insisted on trying to narrow down the exact location, asking for names of nearby buildings and so on. I told him to just get the emergency services on the way.

They probably work the same way ours do - as soon as they have even a general location, we are already on our way on blue lights, while they continue to ask question and question - so although it seems frustrating, it's not slowing down help getting to you

 

[young Ed]

Got some Dsshcam footage of Young Ed...

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xMtR1ClBBPQ

yep that's totally me! i'm not a skinny tall english lad in school clothes attending a serious accident (the opposite of peter griffin!)
Cheers Ed

 

[Littgull]

Colin
A very traumatic incident as others have said. I think you were a terrific help and a comfort to the poor chap. The humanity and thoughtfulness in the posted replies brought me out in goose pimples. I would echo all the sentiments expressed.

 

[glenn forger]

Rider was lucky to have you there Colin. Good work fella.

 

[Svendo]

Sounds to me like you did a good job Colin. From my experience of being in the road awaiting an ambulance (albeit in different circumstances) the calm reassurance of someone telling help was on the way that was most welcome. And them letting me take the mickey out of them for being a MTBer! BTW he was Jim an off duty firefighter.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Well done Colin.

Was in a similar situation in trying to direct the ambulance. I too was online for quite sometime and it puzzled me with GPS, SatNav and all. I was later told that certain locations have issues with access and thus their attempt to keep the caller online until the ambulance finally arrives.

In the end, the Air Ambulance was involved and it was fantastic.There was a surgeon, a nurse and I was told they had the equipment to even do emergency open heart if they had to . I was impressed.

 

[Drago]

Gotta echo that. Despite being obviously upset and alarmed Colin did the humane thing and tried to bring comfort to a brother. That shows the quality of his character. Well done mate.

 

[swansonj]

Six years ago I called the ambulance for myself whilst lying at the side of the road with a broken femur (black ice + stupidity). In my not-entirely-at-my-best state, I gave the lady the wrong A road number - 245 instead of 246 or something. I then gave her a road name, which clearly didn't match on her system. Understandably, she wanted to be doubly sure she knew where I was and that I wasn't completely raving. So I ended up giving her every street name in the vicinity and describing my route there in detail -"you go through the traffic lights by the crematorium, then you go down the hill, then you come out of the trees...". Thank God for all emergency service personnel doing the job they are trained to do and doing it well, and for passing strangers like you Colin.

 

[Pale Rider]

I called 999 to what turned out to be a fatal accident involving a towed car and a toddler at a bus stop.

Not long after I started the call, the operator said: "Help is on its way," but continued to ask me questions.

I thought he meant someone else had already called it in, but he must have done what @CopperCyclist said above, despatched the police and ambulance before getting the full address from me.

The child was being attended to by others by the time I finished the call and wandered over.

Pleased about that because I wouldn't have fancied finding out how useless I would probably have been.

I recall seeing her bottom half which reminded me of a butcher's slab, lots of flesh but very little blood.

I also recall her breathing unevenly through her nose, almost snorting.

You didn't need to be a doctor to know she was in a bad way.

I decided to make myself useful by making sure the occupants of the car and towed car didn't attempt to flee the scene.

No worries there, the man in the towed car was making an odd keening sound and was walking around quickly in circles - reminded me of the 'headless chicken' description.

My suspicions he might leg it were raised by the nature of the area we were in, and the rough and ready nature of the towing rig - knackered old Fiesta on the end of an old piece of rope.

It turned out the man in the Fiesta was a known local n'er do well with convictions for car crime, petty thieving and the like.

The accident happened at a roundabout.

It looked to me as if he was being towed a bit too fast, and had probably driven over the rope as he cornered.

The car's lack of brakes and his lack of towing experience did the rest.

 

[Hyslop]

Well done Colin.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Gotta echo that. Despite being obviously upset and alarmed Colin did the humane thing and tried to bring comfort to a brother. That shows the quality of his character. Well done mate.

This^^^^^
Well done Colin, not easy to keep a cool head and make a positive contribution to an unpleasant situation. I can't see that you could have done more. Good man.