At 16:48 this fine and sunny late afternoon, we were paged by NWAS Lancashire EOC Air Desk for our assistance with a mountain bike accident in the Roddlesworth plantations at Tockholes.
The call was answered by our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, with initial information leading the team to consider the Slipper Lowe car park as the incident RVP.
A full team callout message was paged at 16:55 and during the response of team members, Steve Fletcher in liaison between our Team Leader, NWAS EOC and the on-scene NWAS crew established that the incident was actually better accessed from Halliwell Fold bridge within the Roddlesworth woodlands.
Our Bolton Mobile 3 Land Rover with team members Mike Marsh and Paul Copley was first on scene at Halliwell Fold bridge RVP where they met with the colleague of the injured mountain biker and one of the NWAS crew members at 17:25.
Team member Mike Marsh went to the casualty site to find out the 46 year old injured male mountain biker (from the Sabden area) had suspected head, arm, chest and knee injuries, after falling with his bike over a short drop and landing in the stream of the Roddlesworth Woodland trail north of Halliwell Fold bridge.
With the arrival of further team members and another team Land Rover the injured male was quickly stretcher evacuated back to the MRT RVP where at 18:00 he was placed on a stretcher in the rear of our BM3 vehicle. This vehicle then transferred the casualty to where the NWAS emergency ambulance had parked, at Rake Cottage alongside Rake Brook reservoir. Here the casualty was further assessed and taken by NWAS to Royal Preston Hospital.
By 19:05 all team vehicles involved had departed the scene after the collection of equipment from the MRT RVP.
All that remained was the collection of some team equipment from Royal Preston Hospital by our BM3 vehicle and its return to our Ladybridge Hal Base/HQ at 20:10.
The team and NWAS would like to thank the experienced male mountain biker colleague of the injured man who provided initial care for the man, including a short period when he lost consciousness.
The following resources were involved in this incident:
- NWAS Lancashire EOC Broughton Air Desk despatcher
- NWAS Lancashire Emergency Ambulance and paramedic, technician crew from Blackburn ambulance station
- Bolton MRT, 2 team Land Rover Mountain Rescue ambulances, 15 team callout list members involved on scene, with a further three team members stood down responding.
This incident represents the seventh mountain bike accident attended by the Bolton MRT in 2014. (2013 – ten mountain bike incidents)
