Yesterday during my ride when I was on the way back home from Jefferson I came upon a family stopped in the middle of the trail. As I approached them I could tell one of the 2 girls was hurt. I soon figured out why. She fell from her bike while they were all riding on the trail. I stopped to help administer first aid to the girl with the permission of her parents of course. I am well trained in first aid, adult & infant CPR. I make it a point to keep my training up to date.

After explaining that I am a trained trail volunteer with the police department I took charge of the situation as best I could. While asking one of her parents to watch for other trail traffic I had the girl sit down right where she was at, (she was standing), & assesed the girls condition and figured out that she did not have any kind of head or neck injury or any other serious injuries that would pervent her from moving. In fact when I stopped she was standing, not laying on the ground or holding her head or doing anything else to indicate she had more serious injuries. I also asked her questions & she was clearly able to answer me. I asked her parents questions about her condition as well I also asked them if I should call 911 or anyone else that could help in this situation. They answered my questions & declined the call to 911 or anyone else. This took maybe all of 60 seconds.

I then had the girl stand up & had all 4 of them move off the trail to keep from blocking it, then I had the girl sit back down on the grass. The reason I waited to have them move is if she was seriously hurt. They last thing you want to do is move a victim if they are seriously hurt which would make things worse. I then asked the girl where are you hurt. She told me her arm. She had an abrasion on her elbow, minor road rash. I took out my first aid kit, cleaned her wound with an antiseptic pad & bandaged the wound. I then told both her parents to clean & re-dress it when they get home. And if she shows any unusual physical problems to take her to the emergency room. Because sometimes physical problems that are not apparent at the time of the accident can show up later. Especially so with head injuries. Even though she didn't hit her head, or at least says she didn't problems can still arise.

When I stopped to help, I noticed that she had on open toe style flip-flop sandals. Not the best shoes to wear when you ride bike. In fact her sister had the same style of foot wear on. I asked if the shoes were the cause of her falling. She didn't know or remember. But it was a good bet they were, or at least contributed to it. I suggested they wear a full shoe with better tread then what is on the sandals when riding bike. It will reduce the chance of your foot slipping off the pedal & will also help protect your foot in the even of an accident. Also none of them had helmets on. When I asked if she hit her head earlier I was happy to hear she didn't. I urged the parents to purchase helmets for all 4 of them if they are going to be riding bike. The only response I got from that was "Ok", with the "dumb deer" look. It was probably good that I didn't say what I was thinking after that.

The area of the trail this happened on was only about 1.5 miles from Riverside Park. The mom & 2 girls walked back to the park while the dad rode the other direction to get the car. The girl that was injured apparently was in no shape to ride back to the car.

In this case I did what I thought was right & treated the girl with the appropriate first aid. I just hope her parents did what they were supposed to do when they got home & kept an eye on her for anything more serious that could happen.

Alright serge I suppose you're going to pick this apart for me & explain what I did wrong. When in fact I did nothing wrong & did everything I could to handle this situation appropriatley.

I think the only way you could have improved on this was to possibly write down a short list of places they can go to buy helmets. Thing is most people aren't willing to do any finger-work, but if you do it for them, they are much more likely to take some level of action.

Even if it's writing down "k-mart, walmart, target, bob's bike shop, etc"

I think the only way you could have improved on this was to possibly write down a short list of places they can go to buy helmets. Thing is most people aren't willing to do any finger-work, but if you do it for them, they are much more likely to take some level of action.

Even if it's writing down "k-mart, walmart, target, bob's bike shop, etc"

I did verbally tell them where to go purchase helmets. Told them where both bike shops are located. Also mentioned all of the discount stores that sell bike helmets & their locations. I told them to go to more then one store & try on more then one brand because no 2 brands will fit your head the same way. I told them to look for 1 of 2 stickers on the inside that indicates the safety standard. One is called a U.S. CSPC & showed them the inside of my helmet. But I could not remember the other one & advised that they ask at one of the 2 bike shops. But these days all of the new helmets that are available for purchase has one of these 2 up to stickers in it. I do not carry anything to write with or on when I ride. So writting it down for them was not possible.

Even though I did this I have serious doubts that they will purchase helmets.

I ALWAYS TOLD MY KID NOT TO WEAR THOSE...well guess what she did anyway.......now she has false front teeth.......they just dont listen.........

You should the number of skinned toes I see from kids riding with sandals or flip-flops. Kids won't use brakes. At least your upper middle class white Yankee kids.

And to think, when I was a kid, there was a guy named Lyndon in office at the time, we liked bikes with rubber pedals because the metal "rat traps" hurt or bare feet.

Ever drag your bare toes on the pavement? :eek: HOOOOO :eek: That'll take a nail off. :D

dude how old where these girls, whats the big deal some girl scraps her arm and you make a huge deal of it offer to call 911 etc, i mean sure the saftey advice was right on target, but they are obviously just on a leasurly ride she falls of and scraps her arm, as for not being able to cary on, have you noticed that people that do nto do sports and not used to pain will stop doing it if they have the slightest discomfort, its not like see seriously could not cary on. I fell from a stand still once whilst not even going, well my foot which was cliped in to the pedal got forced in to a rock, my weight and the bike forcing it in to the rock with no where to go. That was painfull infact i tried ot get up but i could not put presure on my foot, i was limping for 3 days yet i manged to cycle another 70km like that. Its all in the mind, if theres no serous bleeding nothing is broken or twisted etc then under most curcumstances you can cary on. A suitable reason not to may be you where wearing no gloves you bruised the palm of your hand very badly and it hurts to hold the handlebar, but grazing your arm is no reason not to cary on!

dude how old where these girls, whats the big deal some girl scraps her arm and you make a huge deal of it offer to call 911 etc, i mean sure the saftey advice was right on target, but they are obviously just on a leasurly ride she falls of and scraps her arm, as for not being able to cary on, have you noticed that people that do nto do sports and not used to pain will stop doing it if they have the slightest discomfort, its not like see seriously could not cary on. I fell from a stand still once whilst not even going, well my foot which was cliped in to the pedal got forced in to a rock, my weight and the bike forcing it in to the rock with no where to go. That was painfull infact i tried ot get up but i could not put presure on my foot, i was limping for 3 days yet i manged to cycle another 70km like that. Its all in the mind, if theres no serous bleeding nothing is broken or twisted etc then under most curcumstances you can cary on. A suitable reason not to may be you where wearing no gloves you bruised the palm of your hand very badly and it hurts to hold the handlebar, but grazing your arm is no reason not to cary on!

She was probably 12 at the most, her sister was a few years younger. The reason I asked her parents if they wanted help from someone else like an EMT was to protect myself. Even though I am covered under what is called the good samaritan law. What that means is if I administer first aid & the person suffer worse injuries or dies I can not be sued over it, at least I'm not supposed to be because I am in no way a medical professional. But it has happened with other people in the past who have administered first aid help to victims. So I left it up to the parents to tell me what they wanted to do, have a proffesional called or allow me to help their daughter. This way if ends up in a civil court I have a leg to stand on as to what happened.

I think a lot of the reason she didn't want to continue on her ride was she was pretty upset about her fall & maybe she was afraid she'll fall again. Another factor could have been what I suggested about their footwear, that they should have full shoes covering their feet instead of sandals. Maybe that put a little fear in them so they didn't want to ride anymore that day.

She was probably 12 at the most, her sister was a few years younger. The reason I asked her parents if they wanted help from someone else like an EMT was to protect myself. Even though I am covered under what is called the good samaritan law. What that means is if I administer first aid & the person suffer worse injuries or dies I can not be sued over it, at least I'm not supposed to be because I am in no way a medical professional. But it has happened with other people in the past who have administered first aid help to victims. So I left it up to the parents to tell me what they wanted to do, have a proffesional called or allow me to help their daughter. This way if ends up in a civil court I have a leg to stand on as to what happened.

I think a lot of the reason she didn't want to continue on her ride was she was pretty upset about her fall & maybe she was afraid she'll fall again. Another factor could have been what I suggested about their footwear, that they should have full shoes covering their feet instead of sandals. Maybe that put a little fear in them so they didn't want to ride anymore that day.

ahh ok then, anyway making a big deal about a small injury is far more decent then just cycling past and ignoring it. Reminds me of a CTC off road group ride i was on, somthing like 20 of us, mostly people about 25, i was 15 at the time, there where to 17 year old girls (that i underestimated but where actuly a lot better then me) well on some very rutted ground every one was comming off, i came off 3 times including launching myself in to a bush and launching myself in to the air and landing sideways. 1 of the 17 year old girls went over the handlebars and i genraly noticed every 1 crashing non stop over this short strech of path, but every 1 got up off the floor and caried on, it was a very memroable ride actuly!

On that same ride i followed a few of the guys down some steps, not tkaing the fact that most people got off to walk, as a hint. Well suddenly the lip of the step gets larger these guys are managing alrite, they also got full suspension bikes with there for more clearence. I manged to damage my bike, bending a chain ring as i hit in to the steps. Latter I go fast downhill trying to catch up the group who are waiting for me and few others who fell behind, there is a muddy puddle right at the end, i had v brakes and there for the mud hampered my braking efforts as i put all my effort in managing to brake inches before hitting in to the group. At which point some one mentions "no brakes, no gears how does he do it" i must say that despite the £150 bill form the shop for the new parts and labour on my bike, it was a very memorable ride.