Saw someone post-dooring this morning - that's gonna sting!

mcj78

On my surprisingly pleasant (read: not raining) cycle to work this morning I noticed some commotion up ahead on the pavement adjacent to a set of lights. Turns out some poor guy had been filtering approaching a red light just as someone decided to jump out of the passenger side of a stationary transit van - no helmet, not pretty! Ambulance was already being called when I arrived so I stemmed the (not inconsiderable) flow of blood with my spare t-shirt & tried to keep the guy calm until the ambulance arrived & took him for a proper check up.

Once the ambulance arrived they said they couldn't take his bike with them so I took it round to my mum's house (which was by chance just round the corner) & gave the guy the address & phone number so he could call later & pick it up - is this normal, what would have happened if I hadn't been there? It was a carbon Look with Dura Ace & other nice bits on & would have been a considerable loss if it was left by the roadside - I also expected police to appear & take statements etc. which didn't happen & I had to stop by the police station & hand in the driver's details myself (which another cyclist who had stopped took down while I was dropping his bike off). I thought if someone had been hit by a car & required an ambulance the 999 operator would send both automatically, not rely on passers by to take details & report the incident.

At the police station the officer at the desk checked the 999 log & said the hospital had eventually called police to take a statement from the cyclist, not exactly re-assuring! Even the van driver was asking the ambulance crew who he should give details to & I heard them tell him to hang around for 10 minutes in case the police turned up - the van driver seemed nice enough but would he really have stopped by the police station after the event & admitted his passenger had just taken someone out with his door?

Turns out the cyclist wasn't too bad & was discharged after some stitch work & a comedy turban style bandage job, he picked his bike up this afternoon (bent bars, bust shifters, steering had locked up for some reason - maybe bust steerer too), dunno what'll happen now, but if you ever see anything like this happen yourself - make sure to get as many details as possible & don't rely on police automatically turning up to do it, they might not.

And please wear a helmet - I shudder to think what the cyclist in question would be doing right now if he'd been doing 20-30mph on the open road instead of presumably slowing down to filter through traffic!

8)

asprilla

The police should have been called. AFAIK it's an offence to leave the scene of an accident before the police turn up if someone is injured.

Sounds nasty. Hope he's ok.

Well done you as well.

mcj78

Yeah, my mum phoned earlier & said apart from the obvious he didn't seem too bad which is positive I suppose.

Heading home now - helmet firmly in place!

J

flateric

Once the ambulance arrived they said they couldn't take his bike with them so I took it round to my mum's house (which was by chance just round the corner) & gave the guy the address & phone number so he could call later & pick it up - is this normal, what would have happened if I hadn't been there?

8)

Hi, yes its normal practice for ambulance crews not to take the bike. What often happens is like you did, the bike gets taken in to a local house from where it can be picked up later, failing that i guess its the police responsibilty to recover the bike as they would do with a car (often worth less than the bike).

You reslise how important helmets are when this happens. last bike crash i was was a guy on a carbon bike who's front tyre burst when he was going at some pace. Helmet did its job.

Bacteria Man

I was hit by a car driven by a seemingly blind adolescent in Feb this year. Idiotic as he was, he did actually take my messed-up bike back to my parents place in his car, so I suppose I can't be that angry. The police arrived at the scene with the ambulance, but I was a little suprised that they wanted me to just leave my formerly prized bike at the roadside. I'm just glad they turned up at all, after reading this!

Robstar24

when i crashed last october (touch of wheels at some speed on the commute, guy in front had slowed down sharply because of van doing u-turn, resulted in broken collarbone and some road rash for me), they took my bike in the ambulance to the hospital.

on the point of helmets, i hit my head that time and there was a nice dent all down that side of my helmet, hate to think that could have been my head if i were one of those 'helmet's don't help' brigade.

Valy

Robstar24 wrote:

when i crashed last october (touch of wheels at some speed on the commute, guy in front had slowed down sharply because of van doing u-turn, resulted in broken collarbone and some road rash for me), they took my bike in the ambulance to the hospital.

on the point of helmets, i hit my head that time and there was a nice dent all down that side of my helmet, hate to think that could have been my head if i were one of those 'helmet's don't help' brigade.

:O
____________________

Bloody hell though - good game OP.

Pufftmw

Asprilla wrote:

The police should have been called. AFAIK it's an offence to leave the scene of an accident before the police turn up if someone is injured.

From Highway Code


260. If you are involved in an accident which causes damage or injury to any other person, vehicle, animal or property, you MUST

• stop
• give your own and the vehicle owner's name and address, and the registration number of the vehicle, to anyone having reasonable grounds for requiring them
• if you do not give your name and address at the time of the accident, report the accident to the police as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case within 24 hours.

261. If another person is injured and you do not produce your insurance certificate at the time of the accident to a police officer or to anyone having reasonable grounds to request it, you MUST

• report the accident to the police as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours
• produce your insurance certificate for the police within seven days.

suzyb

When I crashed years ago the paramedics said they'd try and take my bike with me.

Didn't need them to try in the end as a local resident kept it until my parent could pick it up.

hells

I am a medic in the ambulance service, I have taken the bike with us every single time that I have attened an offed cyclist apart from two times where the cyclist has already locked their bike up and stated they did not want to bring it with them . Also none of the cyclist I have been to have had severe life threatening or life changing injuries, if they did have life changing or life threatening injuries I would not be able to take the bike as there would be no room for me to work properly in the ambulance and we would likely have a solo responder joining us in the back or the HEMS doctor and medics. I don't think we have to take it though, I choose to take it as I think it's the nicer thing to do, I would not leave a wheelchair bound patients wheel chair behind or a mum/dads baby pram behind and these are just as cumbersome and difficult to fit in the ambulance. Maybe it's just cuz I also cycle and would be really upset if my bike was just left behind. Also be aware that even if it is taken with us it cannot be guarenteed that the bike will not get stolen from the hospital especially if the patient does not have the lock with them. Often we are not allowed to bring the bike into the hospital and we can't keep it. I think some crews may take the bike back to their ambulance station for the patient, there are a few bikes that appear to be damaged and abandoned at several stations I have worked at which regular staff think are from rtc's but the patient has never come to collect their bike.

I am surprised that the police were not automatically called by the oporator. Did you speak to police or ambulance control? It may have been the police forwarding the job onto the ambulance control and then not sending a unit for whatever reason. Personally if the police did not show by the time I want us to leave and the patient wanted to report the incident to them I would have radio'd control and requested police and asked for an eta. If they took ages I would not wait for them and the patient would have to give a statement at hospital as my priority, responsibility and job is their health not the crime.

thelawnet

Robstar24 wrote:

on the point of helmets, i hit my head that time and there was a nice dent all down that side of my helmet, hate to think that could have been my head if i were one of those 'helmet's don't help' brigade.

I dunno mate, maybe you should wear a motorcycle crash helmet instead if you really care about safety, anything less than that you're clearly not bothered. :roll:

vitesse169

I am a police control room operator - when I take a 999 report of rtc, I always call thru to the amb control.... Likewise, we get many calls from them requesting our attendance at rtc. Often the calls are doubled up, tho it does not matter - as long as we both are aware of the incident, it will be dealt with in a timely fashion...

tjwood

As others have said when you call 999 you will be greeted by the BT operator, "Emergency, which service?". If you ask for Police you will be put through to the police control room, if you ask for Ambulance the ambulance control room. (Incidentally, the BT operator may first speak to the ambulance/police service and read out your phone number - don't talk until the police/ambulance operator says "hello caller" or something similar...). Once you have given all the necessary details to the police/ambulance operator they ought to call the other service if required though it is not automatic.

Personally if everyone is conscious and breathing I'd ask for Police, give details of the incident and why it requires police attendance, then make clear to them that they need to call an ambulance as there are X people injured. If someone is not conscious and breathing
ambulance attendance is required ASAP so I'd do the opposite, speaking to the ambulance operator and after you have given all the necessary details (location and answered the medical triage quesions - at this point they will have already dispatched the ambulance if it's life threatening) then ask they also call police due to the nature of the incident.

If you arrive at the scene after someone else has already made a 999 call, it might be worth asking which service they spoke to, and if required call the other one too.

Mr_Cellophane

Asprilla wrote:

The police should have been called. AFAIK it's an offence to leave the scene of an accident before the police turn up if someone is injured.

No - you must report it to the Police within 24 hours. There may be very good reasons why you don't wish to wait around - threats to your person, physically dangerous, or even that you didn't realise until you got home.

spen666

Asprilla wrote:

The police should have been called. AFAIK it's an offence to leave the scene of an accident before the police turn up if someone is injured.

Sounds nasty. Hope he's ok.

Well done you as well.

Its not an offence as you describe

You must stop after an accident
give your details to anyone requiring them
report the accident to the police as soon as possible (and in any event withinn 24 hours)


No requirement to remain at scene indefinitely

Headhuunter

When I had my crash the ambulance crew were going to leave my bike by the side of the road. In Peckham. It would've been gone in 2 minutes. Luckily another cyclist asked them to take the bike in the ambulance so they did but when they had finished with me I went outside to get the bike and someone had literally put the lock through the seatpost! I mean talk about the stupidest way to lock a bike in the world ever! If anyone had noticed it, they could have removed the seat, left the lock on the railing and taken the bike away. All they would have needed was an allen key.

The hospital and staff were lovely. Gold A* for my treatment, minus several million points for treatment of my bike....

spen666

Headhuunter wrote:

When I had my crash the ambulance crew were going to leave my bike by the side of the road. In Peckham. It would've been gone in 2 minutes. Luckily another cyclist asked them to take the bike in the ambulance so they did but when they had finished with me I went outside to get the bike and someone had literally put the lock through the seatpost! I mean talk about the stupidest way to lock a bike in the world ever! If anyone had noticed it, they could have removed the seat, left the lock on the railing and taken the bike away. All they would have needed was an allen key.

The hospital and staff were lovely. Gold A* for my treatment, minus several million points for treatment of my bike....

The moral of this story is don't have a crash

When my mate got doored about 3 years ago, ambulance crew took him and his bike to hospital. I said I'd ride there after calling his wife.

Ambulance crew insisted I joined them in ambulance with them and took my bike as well!!!!!

rjsterry

That must have been cozy. Roof racks for ambulances? Although, you wouldn't be able to reach them. TBF, if you are really mashed up, you probably shouldn't worry about your bike - heresy, I know, but it's replaceable.

spen666

rjsterry wrote:

That must have been cozy. Roof racks for ambulances? Although, you wouldn't be able to reach them. TBF, if you are really mashed up, you probably shouldn't worry about your bike - heresy, I know, but it's replaceable.

The big American stlye ambulances they have in london. bikes fitted in ok.

Corporate Camper

mcj78 wrote:

so I stemmed the (not inconsiderable) flow of blood with my spare t-shirt & tried to keep the guy calm until the ambulance arrived & took him for a proper check up.

Once the ambulance arrived they said they couldn't take his bike with them so I took it round to my mum's house (which was by chance just round the corner) & gave the guy the address & phone number so he could call later & pick it up

Nobody has mentioned it yet, but good work! Lots of people would have carried on their way and not looked back (often because of fear or whatever).

If I ever fall off my bike I hope someone like you is around to help me out!

Bacteria Man

Just to say to those readers that work in the police or ambulance services, we may have minor gripes about not always sharing our enthusiasm for keeping our smashed bike with us, but we'd be buggered without you. Big up!