With team members about to commence our usual Wednesday evening training exercise, at the venue tonight of Round Barn Quarries, Entwistle, team member Steve Fletcher (who was not on the exercise) contacted our Team Leader direct on the exercise at 20:20, with information of a mountain bike incident on the slopes of Rivington Pike.

Steve had been contacted at home a minute earlier by one of his friends who had witnessed the accident on the Pike whilst out riding his own bike this evening.

An NWAS (Manchester) Ambulance had already been called to the scene, having received a 999 call at just after 20:00.

Whilst our Team Leader Garry Rhodes was mobilising the team direct from the incident location, team member Steve Fletcher directly contacted Ambulance Control to advise them that they would require Mountain Rescue due the inaccessible location of the casualty.

21 team members in our five team vehicles, along with our Team Leader and Deputy Leader’s vehicles all responded from the exercise location direct to the RVP at the base of Rivington Pike on George’s Lane.

Shortly after the arrival of the NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance at the base of Rivington Pike, team member Steve Fletcher arrived to meet the crew at 20:30.

Steve and the two ambulance crew then ascended the slopes of Rivington Pike on foot to commence immediate casualty care. The casualty, a 38 year old male experienced mountain biker, had been descending the Pike on his bike when he went over the handlebars sustaining a very serious arm fracture, a suspected wrist fracture, and grazing to the knee.

First arriving team members, the NWAS Ambulance crew, and friends of the injured man commence initial treatment.The casualty had been riding in the company of three other well equipped and experienced mountain bikers who had comforted him and kept him warm up to the arrival of the ambulance service and ourselves.

At 20:49 our first Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance (BM3) arrived on scene in company with our Deputy Team Leader and Team Leader’s vehicles.

With the arrival at 20:50 of our BM1 and BM2 vehicles, hill parties with a Mountain Rescue stretcher and specialist splintage equipment were immediately despatched. By 20:55 our BM4 and BM5 vehicles had also arrived at the ambulance RVP with all members despatched to assist with the evacuation.

Team members and the NWAS crew fit a splint to the casualty’s armThe casualty, in considerable pain, was given morphine on site, his fractures were immobilised and by 21:26 a full stretcher evacuation commenced.

Evacuation commences…At 21:55 the 38 year old casualty was en-route to Royal Bolton Hospital in the NWAS Emergency Ambulance (from Bolton North Ambulance Station).

The ambulance RVP at the base of the Pike.In the interim, two team members in our BM5 minibus had taken the casualty’s mountain bike back to the mountain biker’s start point at the San Marino Restaurant, Belmont, with the three mountain biker colleagues of the injured man deciding to cycle back to their start point on road.

This incident was concluded for the majority of team members back at our Ladybridge Hall Base/HQ at 22:15, although team members Steve Kenworthy and Mike O’Brien did not return back to our Base/HQ until 23:45, having called at Royal Bolton Hospital to collect some of the team’s equipment that had been used on this incident.

Whilst all this was going on, team member Helen Rigby stayed behind at the exercise location to inform our two exercise casualties for the night who had kindly travelled from the Warrington area, that the team had all disappeared on a callout, and that we wouldn’t be coming to their rescue tonight!