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.