A good buddy of mine and I were out on a ride last Friday, then things went “south.” We had been out riding the Baraboo bluffs and Ron was now in the lead on a road that he had ridden several times. For some reason Ron drifted off the pavement, tried to maintain control, “highsided,” and was catapulted off the bike, into the ditch. He landed on his back about 60 feet from the bike, which was on the shoulder of the road. I got to Ron in less than a minute, and found him conscious and breathing (thank God). He was wearing a full-face helmet. He could not move, or feel his extremities, but he could talk coherently (could count my fingers, etc.). I called 911 but was unsure of our location.

When I shut off my bike, my GPS shut off, so I had to wait until it initialized so I could try to get our location which I gave to the 911 folks. After I was sure I could leave Ron for short time, I ran about 1/8mile to a house where I got a fire number, then got back to Ron. Shortly after, a “local” drove up and I stopped him and gave him my phone to talk to the 911 folks. The first responders got there, then the EMTs from Reedsburg(about 30 min). They requested Med-Flight which arrived about 30 minutes later..

In retrospect…I’m glad the cell phone worked and that I had a GPS (we used the coordinates for Med-Flight’s LZ which was only down the road). I did not have my first aid kit with me. If he hadn’t been breathing, I don’t think that I could have used the airways anyway, and would have had to remove his helmet to administer breathing assistance. Your Accident Scene Management course was instrumental in my “maintaining my cool.” I had planned on taking the refresher course at Capital City HD before this happened; now it is not an option. I know I need more instruction in one person removal of a full face helmet.

Ron is still in intensive care at the UW hospital. He has feeling in his extremities, but has very little movement. They are still waiting for swelling in his spinal cord to subside. They fused some C and T vertebrae.

I would gladly speak to this incident at the January classes.

Norm Sannes