From: ron@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Ron Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Subject: Thread to ham radio
Date: 21 Jul 92 15:28:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: hpfcso.103360097
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA

This is somewhat tangentially related to ham radio so I am cross-posting it
from where I targeted it - rec.motorcycles.

Ron
NW0U


    SOME THOUGHTS ON HELMETS, BIKES, AND EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT


THE STORY (Very condensed.)

I was returning from a week long vacation in Sun Valley Idaho on Saturday.
We had been on the road for 13 hrs and were in the stretch of 2-lane
55 mph highway between Laramie, Wy. and Ft. Collins, Colo (home).
(Also on the Great Roads List.)

Just south of the Wyo.-Colo. border, we came upon an accident. It was
9:30PM, dark, woods on both sides. A motorcyclist was lying in the road,
her bike was on its side about 20 feet away and about 40 yards down the
road a deer was lying dead on the road shoulder.

We were about the 5th vehicle on-scene. 

The unhelmeted motorcyclist had been riding along and had hit and killed
a (big) deer. She had head, neck and probably spinal injuries. 
Her boyfriend and son had been on an accompanying bike. As we arrived, the
boyfriend had zipped off to find a phone and call for help. The earlier
arrivals were busy controlling the scene and protecting the victim from 
cars running into the scene.

My wife and I stayed for about 1 hour and assisted by relaying info from
an EMT who attended the victim to the Colo. State Patrol by way of 
my ham radio. Based upon that info, a rescue helicopter was dispatched.
We cleared the scene just before the big white light landed alongside the
road.

SOME THOUGHTS ON EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT

1. There were a few flashlights among the helpers. But a wiggling white
   light isn't enough to warn or direct traffic on a dark country road.
2. Nobody, including me, had flares or reflective triangles to put in the
   road to warn oncoming traffic.
3. The people waving the flashlights to direct traffic were practically
   invisible. 
4. The ham radio contact may have saved her life. It worked relatively
   well. A cell phone would do as well though. (CB would have been useless.
   We'd been trying Ch 9 for 50 miles coincidentally to report sheep in the
   Interstate to anyone. No result.)

Note for Hams: The first op. on the repeater tried to bring up the autopatch
               but was either so new or so rattled that he was holding down
               a tone button while ID'ing thru the standard patch start-up
               routine. Another ham then tried unsuccessfully. Then they
               wanted to talk about the status of the repeater controller
               macros. 
               In an emergency, time dilation made that routine feel like
               a lifetime. I dismissed them (much too roughly) and had a
               base operator relay verbally thru the phone. In retrospect,
               after the initial phone report, we should have retried the
               patch since time allowed but we locked in on what worked.

               There is no substitute for practice and such aids as
               auto-dialers and pre-programmed equipment. My 02AT came
               up on the wide coverage repeater when I turned it on.
               That helped with my lack of brainpower as the adrenaline
               washed my thinking away! 

WHAT I AM DOING AS A RESULT OF THE ABOVE

1. All cars get a new flashlight dedicated for emergency use.
   Batteries to be changed when plates are renewed.
2. All cars get road flares (the one we were driving didn't have any)
3. Wife will sew some sort of sash or belt with reflective material to
   be worn by traffic diretors. (Neither the Wyo. or Colo. troopers put these
   on if they had them. They were just wiggling white lights too.)
4. Ham radio will continue to go along for the ride with a better antenna
   to allow the radio to be taken out of the car without loss of signal.
   (I had a magnetic mount 5/8 wave antenna on the car. A 1/2 wave Hot-Rod
    will be added to the kit to allow the HT to be carried to the shoulder
    of the EMT.The repeater could not be made on the rubber duck.)

    Also of note- I run a scanner and CB on long road trips. The HT lives
    on the floor. I had the choice of selecting the scanner antenna or the
    2m 5/8 antenna. I'm glad I opted for the 5/8 to use on the scanner.
    It helped when needed.


SOME THOUGHTS ON HELMETS

The "cost to society" argument for helmets tends to be rather easily dismissed.
I attribute this to the impersonal nature of the argument. 

On a different scale, this lady's choice to (a) not wear a helmet and (b) to
ride at dusk/dark in deer territory, severely traumatized about 12 people who
came to her aid. These individual strangers contributed time, material and
emotional energy on her behalf, all because they felt it to be right. 
(and that the law requires rendering assistance.......)

I think that she made a thoughtless choice that imposed unnecessarily upon
the kindness of strangers. Frankly, MY first reaction was not of compassion
but was of rage. HOW COULD SHE BE SO ALMIGHTY STUPID TO BE RIDING WITHOUT
A HELMET!!!!! She is free to choose to ride helmetless but neither I, nor any of
the helpers was free to let her die unattended.  Two of the helpful 
strangers remarked that this was the second motorcycle accident that they
had been first on-scene with in 2 weeks. (The other was a squid-boy that
ran off the road when travelling the Masonville Rd. in a pack.) 

When you reject the "cost to society" argument, please remember that you
are also spitting in the face of suddenly involved strangers who will be 
inconvenienced by your decision. They cannot spit back at you as you lie 
unconscious and bleeding on (or off) the road.

The hospital was pretty protective about even telling whether the victim
was alive or not. With pressure, they came across that she was in
"serious but stable condition."  Don't know her name, don't know her
family, may not ever find out the extent of her injuries.

FOOTNOTE

This tends to reinforce my personal policy of avoiding riding at dusk or
in the dark and of wearing lots of protective gear. If I get a helicopter
ride, I want to look out of the windows.

Ride Safe,
Ron Miller
1988 BMW R100GS
NW0U