What to do with your bike if you have an accident?
Discussion
back when we had big ambulances I used to take the bike to hospital with us, now we ring a friend or family to pick it up as they don't fit in the little van conversions.
one we hid well in some woods and I took it home after work and dropped it at the guys house when he was out of hospital.
Sometimes the police help out if they have a van nearby.
one we hid well in some woods and I took it home after work and dropped it at the guys house when he was out of hospital.
Sometimes the police help out if they have a van nearby.
When I got dumped off by a van on a roundabout the police attended. My bike got a lift home in a police transit van, I went to A&E in the ambulance. But as far as I'm aware, there's no 'rules' about what to do with bikes after accidents.
I imagine the police are obliged somehow to secure your property IF they attend the scene, as part of their duty to uphold the law and prevent crime. I'd imagine that ambulance crews have enough on their plate getting the casualty treated to not want to worry about the bike too.
I've got a feeling that in Swinley, for example, the Crown estate forest rangers usually attend MTB accidents in their 4x4 pickups, so i'd hope that they recover bikes to the Bike Hub at the visitor centre to be secured until the owner can collect. But even then, I'd imagine that they're not legally obliged to do so.
I've recovered a bike for an injured rider once. Very trusting of him really, as I could have just wanted to help myself to it. He'd crashed hard on a local (unofficial) trail and broken his wrist (quite badly as it turned out). I turned up while the ambulance crew were sorting him out and he asked if I could stash the bike somewhere out of sight for him, so I did, and locked it with a cable lock too. But I live nearby, and so I came straight back for it to get it secured properly at home. Obviously I gave him my phone number too, or he wouldn't have been able to retrieve it. In the end I drove it round to his house for him as it was obvious it would be some time before he could come back for it himself. We're not "firm friends" afterward, but we have overlapping groups of friends and have ridden together a few times since his recovery, and we chat via Strava comments a lot as we often ride the same routes but at different times of day.
I imagine the police are obliged somehow to secure your property IF they attend the scene, as part of their duty to uphold the law and prevent crime. I'd imagine that ambulance crews have enough on their plate getting the casualty treated to not want to worry about the bike too.
I've got a feeling that in Swinley, for example, the Crown estate forest rangers usually attend MTB accidents in their 4x4 pickups, so i'd hope that they recover bikes to the Bike Hub at the visitor centre to be secured until the owner can collect. But even then, I'd imagine that they're not legally obliged to do so.
I've recovered a bike for an injured rider once. Very trusting of him really, as I could have just wanted to help myself to it. He'd crashed hard on a local (unofficial) trail and broken his wrist (quite badly as it turned out). I turned up while the ambulance crew were sorting him out and he asked if I could stash the bike somewhere out of sight for him, so I did, and locked it with a cable lock too. But I live nearby, and so I came straight back for it to get it secured properly at home. Obviously I gave him my phone number too, or he wouldn't have been able to retrieve it. In the end I drove it round to his house for him as it was obvious it would be some time before he could come back for it himself. We're not "firm friends" afterward, but we have overlapping groups of friends and have ridden together a few times since his recovery, and we chat via Strava comments a lot as we often ride the same routes but at different times of day.
I've had 2 offs that require bike recovery.
First was a slip on ice in which I broke my femur, ambulance called and off I went, I was out with the club and someone phoned their wife to come and pick up my bike, champion.
Second I got knocked off by a car, knocked out and had an ambulance called, I was about 1 mile from work and apparently a runner stopped to help me then carried my bike to work and locked it up (he worked at the same place), I picked it up a few weeks later when I went back to work, great bloke.
First was a slip on ice in which I broke my femur, ambulance called and off I went, I was out with the club and someone phoned their wife to come and pick up my bike, champion.
Second I got knocked off by a car, knocked out and had an ambulance called, I was about 1 mile from work and apparently a runner stopped to help me then carried my bike to work and locked it up (he worked at the same place), I picked it up a few weeks later when I went back to work, great bloke.
I've been helped out by random strangers on the couple of occasions I needed it.
I asked a guy if he could help me lift my MTB back into my roof rack as I was struggling (broken shoulder, broken collarbone, punctured lung, detached ear). He thought that maybe a better idea was to call me an ambulance and for him to take my bike back to his house. As the adrenaline wore off and the pain kicked in I agreed this to be the better option than me driving home. My wife went and collected it a few days later.
Knocked myself clean out at a bike park, can't even remember being put into the ambulance. Had no idea where my bike was. Looked on their Facebook page a few days later and someone had posted to say they had my bike so I went round and picked it up. Decent folks MTB'ers.
I asked a guy if he could help me lift my MTB back into my roof rack as I was struggling (broken shoulder, broken collarbone, punctured lung, detached ear). He thought that maybe a better idea was to call me an ambulance and for him to take my bike back to his house. As the adrenaline wore off and the pain kicked in I agreed this to be the better option than me driving home. My wife went and collected it a few days later.
Knocked myself clean out at a bike park, can't even remember being put into the ambulance. Had no idea where my bike was. Looked on their Facebook page a few days later and someone had posted to say they had my bike so I went round and picked it up. Decent folks MTB'ers.
When I had an accident last year I couldn't give a rats ass what happened to the bike, at that moment in time I was more concerned with not becoming another statistic!! There were a couple of people who offered to take the bike for me, thankfully I had a friend with me who arranged to get my bike recovered from the scene while I was scraped up from the road, unsurprisingly it was a write off anyway...
On the one occasion I've been in this position, a chap in a house next to my crash site looked after the bike for me.
When my mum took me to collect it a week later, he burst into tears the second he opened the door, and said he didn't think he was going to see me alive again.
Up until then, despite three hours unconscious, three days in hospital and a consultant telling me I was only alive thanks to a significantly thicker than average skull, the seriousness of it really hadn't got home!
When my mum took me to collect it a week later, he burst into tears the second he opened the door, and said he didn't think he was going to see me alive again.
Up until then, despite three hours unconscious, three days in hospital and a consultant telling me I was only alive thanks to a significantly thicker than average skull, the seriousness of it really hadn't got home!
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