The Dangers of Mountain Biking
I had an action-packed morning. Got up early, packed my bike up and went out to the trails at Lake Grapevine in the DFW area. I was riding along, and came to a rocky dropoff on the trail about a mile or so in, and a guy (probably mid to late 40's) was sitting off to the side of the trail at the bottom of the dropoff, his bike just laying in the trail at the base.
I said, "Are you ok?". He said, "I don't know, I just had a bad fall." Just from the way he was acting, I knew something was wrong, he was crouched over and not very coherent. He was holding his side, obviously in a lot of pain. I jumped off my bike, hopped down the hill, and checked his eyes, took off his helmet and scanned his head and neck for signs of trauma. Luckily he was wearing a helmet. I asked him what his name was (Larry, he works for Verison). I asked him if he could stand, tried to help him up, and his legs gave out underneath him. He got his wits about him a little bit after that, I asked him if he knew how long he had been down for, he said he thought for just a few minutes, so it must have happened right before I got there.
At that point, it was time to call an ambulance. A guy named Cory was out running on the trails, he came up after I found the wreck, he called 911 while I ran back up the trail to see what the closest crossroads were. I ran up the road, hopping fences and knocking on doors, but no one was up yet, so I just jogged down to the end of the road to get the intersection info to pass on to the dispatcher. When I got back to the accident site, Cory said that he had seen Larry getting out of his SUV when he got to the parking lot, so Larry had been just a few minutes ahead of us on the trail.
Luckily, we were very close to a road (McPherson and Seacoast, I think it was). He was pretty badly shaken up, said his vision was all blurry. He may have cracked a rib when he fell. He was able to call his wife on his cell phone, and told her we had an ambulance on the way, then he had to lay down because of the wooziness and pain.
I called his wife on his cell and told her that the paramedics had arrived, and that Cory and I would meet her at the parking lot with his bike and gear. She dropped her son off at the parking lot to pick up Larry's Infiniti SUV while she went out to Grapevine Hospital. The ambulance got to the scene within 10 minutes, and they put a neck brace on Larry, packed him on a backboard, and carried him up the trail to the ambulance. We helped them carry their gear back to the ambulance, they took our names and phone numbers, and that was that. Cory and I walked his bike back to the parking area, and Larry's son met us on the trail, he was a young guy, 15 or 16 years old, looked a little freaked out. He took his Dad's bike back down, and Cory went back to finish his run. I was just on a short ride, so I head back to the parking lot. A very different adventure for me this morning, wasn't expecting to come across an accident like that.
I think he's gonna be all right, but he said that he was supposed to go climbing with his family next week in the Grand Tetons, I don't think that is gonna happen now.
I said, "Are you ok?". He said, "I don't know, I just had a bad fall." Just from the way he was acting, I knew something was wrong, he was crouched over and not very coherent. He was holding his side, obviously in a lot of pain. I jumped off my bike, hopped down the hill, and checked his eyes, took off his helmet and scanned his head and neck for signs of trauma. Luckily he was wearing a helmet. I asked him what his name was (Larry, he works for Verison). I asked him if he could stand, tried to help him up, and his legs gave out underneath him. He got his wits about him a little bit after that, I asked him if he knew how long he had been down for, he said he thought for just a few minutes, so it must have happened right before I got there.
At that point, it was time to call an ambulance. A guy named Cory was out running on the trails, he came up after I found the wreck, he called 911 while I ran back up the trail to see what the closest crossroads were. I ran up the road, hopping fences and knocking on doors, but no one was up yet, so I just jogged down to the end of the road to get the intersection info to pass on to the dispatcher. When I got back to the accident site, Cory said that he had seen Larry getting out of his SUV when he got to the parking lot, so Larry had been just a few minutes ahead of us on the trail.
Luckily, we were very close to a road (McPherson and Seacoast, I think it was). He was pretty badly shaken up, said his vision was all blurry. He may have cracked a rib when he fell. He was able to call his wife on his cell phone, and told her we had an ambulance on the way, then he had to lay down because of the wooziness and pain.
I called his wife on his cell and told her that the paramedics had arrived, and that Cory and I would meet her at the parking lot with his bike and gear. She dropped her son off at the parking lot to pick up Larry's Infiniti SUV while she went out to Grapevine Hospital. The ambulance got to the scene within 10 minutes, and they put a neck brace on Larry, packed him on a backboard, and carried him up the trail to the ambulance. We helped them carry their gear back to the ambulance, they took our names and phone numbers, and that was that. Cory and I walked his bike back to the parking area, and Larry's son met us on the trail, he was a young guy, 15 or 16 years old, looked a little freaked out. He took his Dad's bike back down, and Cory went back to finish his run. I was just on a short ride, so I head back to the parking lot. A very different adventure for me this morning, wasn't expecting to come across an accident like that.
I think he's gonna be all right, but he said that he was supposed to go climbing with his family next week in the Grand Tetons, I don't think that is gonna happen now.
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