Here are some words I thought I would never be saying but well done Beds County Council for putting on a free, well attended, well thought through, local motorcycle safety show. All the emergency services were there, including a load of police bikes, a paramedic team and local fire fighters in an informal, friendly atmosphere.

I managed to get roped into a paramedic demonstration with an attractive, blonde professional actress, Meg Morris (wingsva@btinternet.com) – well, someone had to do it – where under supervision I was shown how to remove a motorcycle casualty’s crash helmet. Having done various first aid courses both civilian and military, I thought it would be self explanatory, but quite a few things I had not thought of were brought to my attention. Meg is the artfully arranged casualty on the floor, and despite my cack handed helmet removal, Meg stayed perfectly in character notwithstanding my getting her hair caught in her helmet D ring buckle, and pulling it. Sorry Meg!

We were all trying to get a message across that while bikes are enjoyable they do carry a real risk.

We cannot control what other road users do, but we can minimise the risks and the whole show was run by bikers with a message to get across.

We are running a campaign to try and raise awareness of a real problem for urban motorcyclists’ and commuters, the car driver who turns right without checking his door mirror.

At every show we go to we are giving away as many stickers as we can (in hi visibility colours) encouraging drivers to use the door mirror, and see the filtering motorcyclist. The Highway Code says “don’t overtake by junctions” for motorcyclists, but it also warns drivers to check door mirrors, indicate, and get to the crown of the road, make a lifesaver and then turn. What we see is cars in a stream of traffic just flicking on the indicator, and turning and costing a motorcyclist his leg or his life.

So if you are at a show, please pick up the stickers, get them in your car, your mum’s car, your works van or wherever we can get the message across.

After Cheffy and Paul’s trip to Dunstable, this week was the turn of Andrew and I to attend the Motorcycle Training Matters Road Safety event at Bedford Fire Station on Sunday. I was prepared for a day stood in the sunshine but just as I arrived so did the clouds… despite being rather chilly a cup of tea and a sausage sandwich from the burger van soon sorted me out!!

It was nice to see how many local people were aware of what we do and (just as Rhi noted at the Ally Pally show) how many people check the website every week to try and win the prize bike. I apologise to all those who asked me about the specifications of the motorbike and caught me completely off guard, therefore receiving a very girly answer!! Seriously, our prize bike is a road legal, limited edition CCM FT35S, with the engine of a Suzuki DR-Z 400S and yes it is scarily small and light (16kg (around 2.5 stone) lighter than the Suzuki) to have that inside it!! Good luck to all of those who picked up cards this weekend, I would love the bike to go to someone who showed genuine interest in winning it! You can check the results of the prize draw on our main website.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the day was Andrew getting involved in the paramedic and St Johns Ambulance helmet removal demonstration (see pictures) but on a very serious note.

I know, and I always hope that given general first aid advice everybody knows that as a rule you should never remove a motorcycle casualty’s helmet, but I personally did not know that if you do need to remove a biker’s helmet it is a two man job- maybe because I’d never thought beyond “never remove a helmet at the scene”. Helmets should only be removed in the most emergency cases (the examples given were if the biker is not breathing and you need to start resuscitation, or if they are vomiting and are at risk of choking) – but it was very instructive to see how it was done.

So much of my job centres on considering the physics of a motorcycle accident and how injuries are caused as a result. I also know that there can be very common motorcycling injuries that occur very rarely in other situations and so really it makes sense that there should be motorcycle-accident-specific first aid too. I’ve always been a what-if sort of person and I like to be prepared- having been brought up around motorbikes and ride outs with numerous other bikers in the expanse of the Yorkshire countryside, the worst hasn’t happened, but I wouldn’t really know what to do if it did- despite having held a basic first aid certificate!

Having had a look around I’ve discovered there are a number of courses around specifically aimed at motorcyclists- for example that local ambulance services offer ‘first bike on scene’ training, some police forces run first aid courses through the Bike Safe scheme and the St Johns Ambulance offer a course for which on completion you receive formal certification valid for 3 years. I don’t propose to give a first aid lesson here but watching the demonstration certainly made me think that if I had been in that situation I could have made a bad condition fatal. The idea of all of us going on a bike first aid course has been mooted around the office- and now it’s going to be something which I think about very carefully!!

Sobering stuff for my nice afternoon in the sunshine with greasy food and cups of tea… but then I suppose that’s why they organise these events!!