Shropshire Bike Safety

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Why we do what we do – Making Shropshire’s roads safer for bikers

Welcome to the website of the Shropshire Motorcycle Road Safety Group

The group was formed between agencies concerned with motorcycle road safety in Shropshire:

West Mercia Police

Shropshire Council

West Mercia Safer Roads Partnership

&

Shropshire Fire & Rescue

It was recognised that something had to be done to tackle the disproportionate number of killed and seriously injured bikers on Shropshires roads. Those figures were rising.

Enforcement has always been one method of controlling biker attitude but it is by no means the answer. We had to educate bikers to ride safer. By offering them the right advice coupled with opportunities to go and undertake some heavily subsidised training, meant that we tackled attitudes to riding. By doing this, we made bikers think about how they ride, to be aware of the effects of anti social riding on communities and above all, to make them safer, more competant riders. The Shropshire Motorcycle Outreach van display was born. This was an ex ambulance which we converted into a mobile display vehicle housing a post collision Yamaha R1, TV & DVD player, literature and freebies to encourage bikers to engage with us.

We now attend bike meetings all over Shropshire and deliver an educational and informative package to bikers. We also attend shows, events, colleges and schools as well as events in neighbouring Counties. In 2010, we attended over 40 such events.

In 2011, we attended over 60 events county wide. These can be found on the ‘calendar’ section of this site. In 2012, we aim to be even more visible with more events planned including Rider Academies, purpose made training days for riders of all abilities run with our partners from the Institute of Advanced Motorists and Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Keep checking back in the New Year for details.

Also, there will be our Bike Fest on Sunday 24th June, Shropshires unique bike show. Click on the tab above for more details.

Below are the links to the respective road safety sections of the partners.

http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/hwmaint.nsf/open/0BE626454A64B7D48025751200494C78

http://www.westmercia.police.uk/advice-centre/road-safety.html

http://www.shropshirefire.gov.uk/promoting-safer-communities/road-safety/motorcycle-safety

http://www.srpwestmercia.org.uk/Campaigns/ThinkBike/tabid/75/Default.aspx

The Shropshire Motorcycle Road Safety Group are proud to be supporting the Midlands Air Ambulance charity throughout 2011/12.

The Midlands Air Ambulance is the only Charity responsible for funding and operating three Air Ambulances serving the communities of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands. This constitutes the largest air ambulance operating region in the UK.

Since 1991, the Charity has responded to more than 34,000 missions averaging 3,000 per year or nearly ten each day, making it one of the longest established and busiest Air Ambulance organisations in the UK.

The Charity’s three aircraft each carry a crew comprising Pilot, two Paramedics or Flight Doctors plus full life-support medical equipment. Operating from strategically located regional air bases, the maximum flying time to hospital from anywhere in the region is less than 15 minutes.

What is not widely known is that Midlands Air Ambulance receives no Government or National Lottery funding. £6 million is needed each year to keep its three Air Ambulances operational which is donated entirely by the public and local businesses, with 4 in 10 of those we help funded by Gifts in Wills.

If a patient reaches hospital within 60 minutes of injury (referred to as the ‘Golden Hour’) their chances of survival are dramatically increased. That is why the rapid response of the Midlands Air Ambulance is so vital in an emergency situation.

20 Years in the Making…

From just one helicopter flying out of a temporary air base to three helicopters serving a population of over 5.8 million people, Midlands Air Ambulance Charity certainly has come a long way in the past twenty years.

Now celebrating our 20th anniversary we can proudly say that our dedicated flight crews have responded to over 34,000 missions, our rapid response has saved countless lives and we have the most fantastic fundraisers and volunteers around.

So where did it all begin?

Two decades ago on the 21st May 1991 a handful of people formally launched a new air ambulance service called ‘Air 5’ at Hagley Hall in Worcestershire. The new air service was one of the first of its kind in the UK and would be operational five days a week.

Six days after its launch ‘Air 5’ responded to its first flying mission. A woman had suffered a fall on the mountainside in Hay on Wye in Powys and needed emergency medical care. Quick into action the newly established flight crew rushed to the scene, stabilising the patient before airlifting her to Herefordshire Hospital in just six minutes. The Charity’s first successful mission had just been completed.

In October of the same year ‘Air 5’ moved its airbase to RAF Cosford in Shropshire, a home where the Charity’s helicopter was going to stay for the next twenty years. Eventually ‘Air 5’ was renamed ‘County Air Ambulance’ in recognition of the eleven counties of England and Wales then served by the Charity.

With operations getting busier and busier and with increased fundraising, from May 1995, the Charity was able to extend its flying hours to ten hours a day, seven days a week. Since then our flying hours have again been reviewed and we now routinely provide a 16 hour service during the Summer months and 12 hours in the Winter.

Fours years after the increased flying hours, another momentous occasion took place when ‘County Air Ambulance’ launched its second operational helicopter. Not just that but the new airbase was to be a UK first. Strensham airbase on the M5 in Worcestershire was to be the first motorway airbase in the country, proving to be an excellent location for responding to incidents in the quickest possible time. In fact we love our air base at Strensham so much that we’re still there today!

We have often enjoyed being the first air ambulance in the UK to try new things. When the Bolkow 105 aircraft was replaced with a state of the art EC135 it was the first time that such an aircraft had ever been used as an air ambulance. The model is now the most popular amongst air ambulances in the UK. The Charity’s third helicopter commenced operation in November 1998 at East Midlands Airport. Ten years later this aircraft base was relocated to Tatenhill in Staffordshire as part of a re-organisation of air services in the region.

The air ambulance helicopters were updated with the new generation EC135 on 15th May 2001, the first of which was unveiled by HRH Princess Royal.

Just two years ago in 2009 ‘County Air Ambulance’ changed its name to Midlands Air Ambulance aiming to increase the affiliation between the service and the communities it serves. After all, it is the people’s Charity.

Midlands Air Ambulance now operates three helicopters out of the RAF Cosford, Strensham and Tatenhill air bases. We continue to save lives across the communities of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands, flying seven days a week, 365 days a year. To continue this vital service we need to raise £6 million each year and this is where we need your help.

Without our fabulous fundraisers and our valiant volunteers Midlands Air Ambulance would not be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It is because of you that the Charity has managed to be where it is today and with your continued support we will go on to have a sky high future.

We hope you all thoroughly enjoy our 20th anniversary year!

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity runs three state-of-the-art Eurocopter EC135 helicopters, covering an area of over 5,000 square miles and a population of approximately 5.5 million people.

As you can imagine, helicopters are incredibly complex aircraft and therefore very expensive to maintain. It costs £25 per minute to fly each of our aircraft, which equates to £1,500 per hour.

MIDLANDS AIR AMBULANCE HAS RESPONDED TO OVER 3,000 CALL-OUTS OVER THE PAST YEAR.

Each of our three Air Ambulance aircraft is called out on a mission on average 4 or 5 times a day. On occasions the flight crews are stood down for reasons such as a land ambulance is nearer to an accident or arrives first on the scene to assess the situation, releasing the Air Ambulance to be utilised elsewhere. Below you can see the percentage of missions flown per area covered. You can also see the type of missions most common, again per area covered.

Missions by Percentage in each county:

Type of Missions by Percentage in each county:

Read below for true accounts of the real people these life savers have served.

The morning of May 7th 2007 appeared to be the start to a normal drizzly Spring day for now Midlands Air Ambulance Legacy and Grants Officer John Brown. The West Midlands Ambulance Service Paramedic received a telephone call from a friend living near his Walsall home asking if he could help him get to work as his motorbike wasn’t starting.

The plan for John, a Paramedic of 20 years experience, and a motorbike fanatic since a teenager, was to loan his bike and fix his friend’s machine, but on the short journey something happened that changed not only the course of the day, but the course of John’s life. The 45 year old who had recently become a grandad, was less than a mile from his Rushall home when a builder in a van nipped through what he mistakenly saw as a gap in the traffic, but instead smashed head-on into John who was only doing 25mph.

Within seconds John was dying. One of his legs had been sheared off and was lying in the road.
“I had two punctured lungs and a shattered pelvis and as well as losing my leg, there was internal bleeding. My blood pressure was low and I even momentarily lost my sight. Doing what I did as a living I knew my chances weren’t good,” he says.

In the pandemonium around him John only wanted one thing. “I just said to the Paramedics to tell my wife Justine to get here. I wanted to see her to say goodbye.”

Whilst on the scene, two Paramedics and a Doctor worked frantically whilst the Midlands Air Ambulance was on its way. Within seven minutes of landing in Walsall John was at Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital some 16 miles away. There the specialist medical team who deal with such accidents began work in earnest to rebuild John.

It wasn’t easy. John spent three months in hospital enduring great pain as well as many operations to rebuild his shattered body, and the medics had quite a job.

“They said it was similar to a bomb blast,” he adds. “Professor Keith Porter, who looked after me and deals with injured servicemen, used the picture of the work performed as a case study for ­­blast injuries.”

Having to contend with the loss of a limb and the realisation that he would not be able to do his old job again would be an ordeal too great to endure for many. But John took a very pragmatic and benevolent approach to his situation in those early days.

“I suppose seeing this kind of accident so many times in my career I knew it was just an accident, and accidents happen. I felt sorry for the driver of the van. I knew he was devastated by what had happened. I would have liked to talk to him, but with the insurance claim going through I wasn’t allowed. He was just going about his daily business and made a mistake.”

As if this act of forgiveness isn’t enough to testify John’s character, his actions on leaving hospital reinforces his remarkable mental fortitude.

“I thought: I’ve lost a leg, but I’m not going to lose my hobby that I’ve had since I was a kid. I got back on my bikes once I’d had them modified with controls on the handlebars, but it was hard at first.”

As his recuperation continued John was able to get back into work and as he wasn’t able to work as a Paramedic anymore he found himself being offered office-based roles. There was only one for him – as the Legacy and Grants Officer for the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity.

“If it wasn’t for Midlands Air Ambulance I wouldn’t be here,” he adds. “The road journey that day would have been too long and I wouldn’t have made it. As it is I’m here to tell the tale.”

And with the traumas of that day now long behind him John, now 48, is a shining example of how to overcome setbacks with his love of life and the freedom of motorcycling undiminished.

“I’ve just spent a couple of days travelling the roads of France, Belgium and Holland,” he says. “Between Justine and myself we have six bikes. There is no greater feeling.”

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Dave Bladen from Broseley in Shropshire visits the Cosford base of Midlands Air Ambulance every Christmas loaded with all kinds of festive goodies for the flight crew. It’s Dave’s way of saying a big ‘thank you’ to the helicopter crew for saving his life in September 2007. On that day in 2007, it started as a normal working day for Dave. He was driving a lorry around the local area and was heading for a farm in Much Wenlock when he became unwell. When he finally arrived at the farm, Dave was suffering severe chest pain and was clearly in need of urgent medical attention. The Ambulance Service was called and an ambulance was quickly on the scene to help Dave. Helimed 03 from Cosford was returning to its Cosford base from another mission in the Shropshire area. The air crew received the call to assist with Dave’s worsening condition and immediately diverted to the Hughley farm near Much Wenlock. Dave was treated at the scene by the flight crew before being airlifted to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton for life saving treatment. Remembering that day in 2007, Dave said: “Without any doubt, I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the Air Ambulance. I felt ill during the day and the pain got much worse when I reached the farm. After that it became a blur as the medics arrived. I seem to have lost all sense of time as I woke up in New Cross Hospital. I can’t thank them enough for what they did for me.” Dave returns regularly to the Cosford base to meet up with crew members, including flight Paramedic Becky Tinsley, pictured with him on a recent visit. Dave and his family and friends are also big supporters of the Charity, hosting fundraising events as a way of thanking the service for the help given in 2007.