The
photos above show "Tom", the injured cyclist, while those on the
right show the nasty berm that apparently caused the accident.
That berm was erected by the town of Woodside to separate the
walkers from the roadway, but it's an incredibly dangerous object
that has caused at least one more accident than this one, according
to an email I received from someone who crashed into it a month ago.
Since writing the piece below about the
many cyclists who passed by without offering to help the injured
rider, I've mellowed out my stance a bit. Many cyclists emailed me
to say that, when they've had a flat tire or an accident, they've
been offered assistance from multiple passers-by. And the fact that
Tom wasn't able to respond very well if people asked if he was OK
may have come across as saying that he didn't need help.
One thing I've definitely learned... avoid calling 911 from a cell
phone if you can possibly help it. 911 sends you to a central office
where they'll have no clue as to your location and you'll spend a
whole lot of time on hold initially, and then again while you're
explaining the whole thing to them, which you'll have to do yet
again when they connect you to a more-local authority. So, with the
help of people on ba.bicycles, we're putting together a list of
local agencies to call if you're reporting an injured cyclist.
Here's what we've got so far-
Alameda 510-337-2100
Albany 510-525-7300
Berkely 510-981-5911
Oakland 510-777-3211
And for Alameda County the numer is 510-881-8181
Los Altos is 650 947 2779
Campbell: 408-378-8161
Cupertino/Saratoga/Unicorporated Santa Clara County: 408-299-3233
Los Gatos:
408-354-8600
Mountain View:650-903-6395
Palo Alto: 650-329-2406
San Bruno: 650-877-8989
San Francisco: 415-553-0123
San Jose: 408-277-8911
Santa Cruz: 831-471-1131
Santa Clara: 408-296-2236
Sunnyvale: 408-736-6244
On the ba.bicycles newsgroup, someone
posted the question below, regarding a bicycle accident I came
across earlier in the day. I responded as seen below. --Mike--
> Anyone have any information on the cyclist down on Canada Road in
Woodside
> at about 10:30 this morning?
I was just about to compose a post on that. His name was Tom, and
it's
likely he suffered a concussion. I came upon him right around that
time, at
first not realizing how bad off he was. As I was riding past I asked
if he
was OK, and he just kinda nodded or something... but as I looked
back I saw
quite a bit of blood and immediately turned around.
My guess is that he hit that infernal berm that separates the bike
path from
the walking path. Whatever the case, he was quite out of it when I
spoke
with him; he mentioned that somebody had stopped a few minutes
earlier and
helped or told him to get off the road, and may or may not have made
a phone
call for him, he wasn't sure. The fact that he wasn't much sure of
anything
was my concern; at first he wasn't sure which direction he was
riding, or
where he was. That was enough for me to call 911 (quite an ordeal
these
days, as you get some central dispatch that might be in Vallejo
*after*
hearing a recording that they're busy and you wait for two minutes
to speak
to someone, and you have to give them the scoop, and then they
transfer you
to the relevant local people and you give *them* the scoop, and then
they in
turn move on to the fire department where things get repeated yet
again...).
When the fire department arrived I gave them the scoop and then
headed on to
home, delayed maybe 20 minutes or so, for which I initially caught
some
grief, even though I'd called to explain the situation,
which might
cause me to miss the train to the Giants game that I was taking my
kid to.
As if that should in any way compete with helping someone who's been
hurt?
To my way of thinking, the only relevant response should be "Oh my
gosh, is
the person all right?"
Which brings me to this- Why did I see so many people ride past,
with only a
couple asking if everything was OK? A guy's on the ground (sitting
up, not
looking like he was mortally wounded I'll admit) with blood coming
from his
head, neck, arms & legs, and no paramedics around... and nobody
stops?
I certainly didn't do anything heroic; I couldn't if I tried (I
don't have
any formal emergency medical training, which may change soon). All I
did was
stop and see if this guy had his act together (he didn't), tried to
figure
out how to contact someone for him (he couldn't remember any phone
numbers),
call 911 and wait for help to arrive. If I hadn't, he would have
been
waiting out there alone, until??? I just don't know. The guy was
too out of
it to flag anybody down. What could we all possibly be doing that's
more
important than helping someone who's been hurt? Even if it means
nothing
more than talking with that person, making sure they know that help
is
coming, and waiting for it with them?
Anyway, to answer the question, I'm going to try and find someone at
the
fire department tomorrow who can tell me how the guy's doing and
what his
name is. My guess is that he's fine, just a mild concussion (since
he
remembers nothing about the accident and very little about what he
was
doing, where he was going, where he lived even, although things were
slowly
coming back to him), some nasty road rash and either a severely
bruised or
broken right arm (it had one heck of a lump on it). Also probably in
a mild
state of shock, since he didn't appear to be feeling much pain (been
there
on that one myself).
If you see a downed cyclist, even if someone's there with
him/her, best not to assume all is well. It doesn't take too long to
ask a
few questions, make sure somebody has a cell phone that works, and
if not
maybe offer to race back to Woodside for help (this happened at
Godetia &
Canada, just south of Jefferson). My presence on the scene doesn't
constitute adequate medical assistance, to be sure!
PS: I still made the train to the Giants game. They won. Hey, if the
Giants
can win, then the cyclist is probably just fine too.
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