Incident 89/2013

With all the teams resources present at this years Greater Manchester Emergency Services Third Annual Open Day, alongside fifteen of our Call Out list members, we were in an excellent position to respond immediately to a call for assistance received from NWAS during the event.

At 14.24hrs our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE (Present at the Open Day) was contacted directly by NWAS (Manchester) EOC Parkway, requesting the teams assistance at an incident involving an injured mountain biker at Giants Seat Wood, Ringley, Bolton.

Our members were recalled immediately from within the Open Day area, and by 14.31hrs four team vehicles were on route to the Incident RVP in the vicinity of Giants Seat Nursery, Ringley.

Due to the complete bridge closure at Ringley Bridge, on the only main road to the incident location, and the initial information that the location could be either side of the bridge! two of the four responding vehicles re-routed during the emergency response drive, when the actual incident location rather than the road head RVP became established.

Prior to our arrival an NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance crew was already on scene.

They established that the incident involved a fifty year old male solo mountain biker, (From Salford) who had fallen from his bike, sustaining suspected pelvis and head injuries.

His shouts for help had thankfully been answered by a father out walking nearby with his two sons and their two friends, who then jointly tended to the injured man, and contacted the Ambulance Service via 999.

The North West Air Ambulance Helimed 72 was also called to the incident, having arrived at 14.42hrs, but due to the steep wooded hillside, was not able to land close to the incident site.

The Doctor from Helimed 72 joined with the NWAS crew, and the father and sons / friends party in treating the man.

At 14.52hrs our two first responding vehicles arrived at the RVP, and our specialist mountain rescue stretcher was soon despatched to the incident location, it being decided that an evacuation to the NWAS Ambulance would be easier and quicker than to the helicopter, which departed at 14.52hrs.

By 15.07hrs the casualty was safely stretcher evacuated to the NWAS Emergency Ambulance by Bolton MRT members, which then departed for hospital at 15.26hrs.

The team and NWAS would like to express their thanks to the father, his two sons and their two friends, who assisted with this incident.

The following resources were involved in this incident;

• NWAS (Manchester) EOC Parkway and NWAS (Lancashire) EOC Broughton (Airdesk)
• NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance from Whitefield Ambulance Station, with two crew.
• NWAA Helimed 72, from City Airport Manchester.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Team vehicles Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances BM1, 2, 3 and Incident Control Vehicle BM6. Nine team members directly involved in this rescue with a further three stood down upon arrival at the incident RVP.

As an aside to this incident, when we recalled all our members at the Greater Manchester Emergency Services Annual Open Day, to return to our display area to respond, all did so very quickly, aside from team member and Equipment Officer Nick Berry, who by very special GMFRS permission, was at the very top of a GMFRS Aerial Platform (‘Simon Snorkel’) at the time of call, and had a birds eye view of our vehicles departing from the Trafford Centre!