Passes & Canyons Blog

If your buddy goes down or you just happen upon a crash scene, and you’re the first one there, the number one thing you need to do is make sure no one–including yourself–suffers further injury.

I recently attended an “Accident Scene Management” class and all this information comes from that.

The first person you’ve got to take care of is yourself. You’re not going to help matters at all if you get hit by a passing vehicle and end up needing assistance yourself. So park safely, with your flashers on, and then go to assist. When you park be sure to leave room for emergency vehicles when they arrive. If there are other people in your group, designate the one with the most training or experience to be in charge. If you have flares or lights or anything to catch attention, deploy those things.

If there’s more than just you you’re going to want to control traffic. Station someone at least 100 feet up the road in each direction, and if you’re at a curve make sure that person is around the curve enough to alert other drivers before they come screaming along. Same with a hill. In town, have them go to the two intersections ahead and behind.

The next part of the training talks about protecting yourself from disease transmission. They say to put on gloves and a face mask. If you’re on your bike you’ll probably already have gloves and helmet on so it would make sense to leave those on. Frankly though, if I see someone bleeding profusely I doubt I’m going to take the time to struggle to slip on some latex gloves.

We’re proceeding now in terms of a motorcycle crash. If the bike is laying on the person you first want to get it off. Besides the weight of the bike and the injury that can cause, they might have their leg pinned against the blazing hot exhaust pipe. Get that thing off them. I won’t waste space here telling you how to lift a bike; you should already know how to do that.

Do you move the person? That depends on potential danger. If you move them there is the possibility you will cause further injury. But if they’re in the middle of the road and you’re the only one there and there is traffic on the road you’ve got to get them off the road. Be aware that every state has “Good Samaritan” laws so don’t worry about being sued for trying to be helpful. But if you don’t absolutely have to move them, don’t. Emphatically, don’t.

If you do have to move them, your method will depend on how many others are there to assist. If you’re alone, reach under from next to the head, grab them by the armpits, cradle their head and neck with your forearms, and pull. If you have assistance you can support their head and neck and roll them over enough to slip a blanket or something under them and them pull on the blanket. The blanket makes it slipperier. The key is to support the head and neck and try not to move the spine. That’s the really big thing, the spine. And that’s why it’s best not to move them at all unless you have to.

Especially if you’re the only one there and you have to leave to get help you will want to–if it’s safe–put them into a position so if they puke–a definite possibility–they don’t suffocate themselves doing so. You’ll want to roll them onto their side with an arm under the head and one leg extended as a “kick stand.” With the person facing downward, any puke will pour out their mouth rather than filling their throat and suffocating them.

Obviously, all these movements are based on your assessments of the situation. If the person is conscious and can talk and they’re moving themselves you have a lot more assurance that the neck and spine are not at issue so you can be freer in what you do. If they’re unconscious you just have to do what seems to make the most sense.

There’s a lot more and I’ll get into that in my next post.

Biker Quote for Today

I got a motorcycle for my wife last week. Best. Trade. Ever!

You never want to be in that position but sometimes it happens. When it does, will you know what to do?

I’m talking about a crash, and really, it doesn’t matter if it’s a motorcycle, a car, or what have you. Whatever it is, you’re the first one there. What do you do?

In order to have an answer to that question I recently took an Accident Scene Management class. This particular class was put on by a group called Road Guardians, and the sign-up cost was kept low thanks to a supplement from Rider Justice. It cost me $40 and was well worth it. Just FYI, the next session will be on March 26.

It was a full house at the session I attended and a good mix of people. There were a couple who had been the first to arrive at crash scenes, a couple of EMTs, a nurse, a bunch of us who just wanted to learn, and one guy who said he had been in four pretty bad crashes and figured he wanted to pay forward to others for what other people had done for him. This brought some really good first hand perspectives into the very lively discussions we had all day.

Before we got started, though, the main topic of interest was the closing that day of Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson. Several of the people in the class were company employees and nearly everyone had some relationship with the dealership. One person in particular seemed to feel especially betrayed by the corporation’s harsh treatment of this family-owned dealership and I had to wonder how he was feeling about the Harley-Davidson tattoos he had all over him.

Through the course of the day the one thing that really struck me about this group was how totally sober they were about this training. I don’t mean sober in the alcoholic sense, but in the serious, very purposeful sense. Another word would be earnest. We had a lot of fun and there was plenty of joking around but this was a group of people who were there for a reason.

It is my intention in my next several posts to talk about the things I learned that day. Looking at the brochure we were given I see where it says “All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission . . . ” and I hope the simple citing of some of the things it talks about doesn’t cross some line. If it does let me know and I’ll make whatever adjustments are needed.

Biker Quote for Today

I just got a wooden motorcycle. It has a wooden frame, wooden handle bars, wooden wheels, and a wooden seat. Guess what? It wooden start.

I just got home from a ride with the RMMRC. With temperatures expected to be in the 70s on this early March day it should be no surprise there were altogether 17 people on this ride.

With so many people it was basically assured we could not stick together all the way to our destination west of Colorado Springs, in old Colorado City. But we also needed to pick up three others in two spots along the way, so we just made sure everyone knew the two spots and said get there and regroup.

That worked pretty well but then, leaving the second stop, in Franktown, we were headed to a restaurant in Colorado City that nobody was familiar with and getting there was not going to be necessarily simple. So once again the deal to get into Colorado Springs, get off at Fillmore Street, and regroup. Then try to stay together to get to the restaurant.

Let’s just say we managed. Only a little bit of chaos.

After lunch we were going to essentially backtrack, but Tim said he could lead us on a nice ride up through Garden of the Gods and then on the way we were figuring. OK. Tim is the one person I know who knows the roads better than me.

So we all got on our bikes and ready to go and looked around and where the heck was Tim? Nowhere to be seen. What the heck? So someone else took the initiative and led us off on what was not a very good route and within two traffic lights we were already getting broken up. We got on US 24 headed toward I-25 and then someone got in the left turn lane. Some people were able to get over but others weren’t and I saw Susan and someone else just go on straight on 24. The rest of us turned, except the one who initiated the turn did a U-turn and went back the other way. We just went ahead.

By the time we reached I-25 at the Uintah interchange there were only four still together in the pod I was in. Then we got on the highway and very soon Gene was the only one behind me and no one in front. So we got off at the designated exit and were cruising along when I saw someone coming up behind. It was Susan. So the three of us headed north toward Denver on CO 83.

Just before we reached Castlewood Canyon State Park I checked my mirror and Gene was nowhere to be seen. In other circumstances that would be cause for concern but with everyone basically just headed home he could easily have decided to take a different route. So we kept going. Around about Orchard Susan peeled off so I was alone but just then I saw in my mirror someone who looked to be Gene.

I figured I’d take it easy and let him catch up but Gene has a way of hanging back. Finally at a stoplight he got close enough that I could see it wasn’t Gene, but Pat, who also rides a Concours 14, as does Gene. Then things took a twist.

Traffic started moving and the guy in front of me started moving, just as I was looking behind me to ascertain that it was Pat. As I turned my gaze forward I saw the truck in front of me was stopped. I later learned there was a car stalled a few car lengths in front of him. I nailed my brakes and, fishtailing wildly, tried to direct the bike to the left of the truck. I came to a stop with my front wheel past the back of the truck but to the side and his rear bumper about two inches from my fairing. I would not have gotten hurt but there would have been damage to the bike. I got lucky. You know, forget trying to see who that is, ride your damn bike.

The rest of the ride home was uneventful, thank goodness.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: Your motorcycle never wants a night out alone with the other motorcycles.