Mountain Rescue at Avon Gorge

Thursday Lunchtime in Clifton. A fire engine nonchalantly parked across the Clifton approach to the Suspension Bridge stops anyone from getting through.


A couple of cyclists are experiencing what it is like to cross the bridge without someone important in a Mercedes driving 6" behind them.


 
Why the closure? looks like the fire brigade are rescuing someone off the Avon Gorge, just to the side of Giant's Cave Buttress (you can see the ropes over the lighter limestone)
 
The climber seems be being evacuated from the bottom of the climb.
We hope all is well.

(PS: for anyone thinking of using these photos, this particular are released under the CC 'with attribution' license, meaning the site "Bristol Traffic" and URL http://bristolcars.blogspot.com should be used. To publish without crediting us is a copyright issue)

Ambulance Leap: Ashton Court

The MTBers are all happy there's a new all-weather trail being built in Ashton Court, with some EU anti-british money going in to encouraging cycling.

We had hoped "all weather" meant "horribly muddy all year round", but apparently it means "with drainage"

At the end of the newly uprated "blue route" by the quarry-in-the-park that is an odd feature of Ashton Court, we can see a boy perfectly executing the new jump at the end at full speed, and getting airborne in the process.

Apparently earlier in the month someone else trying it out managed to get the logistics of which part of the bicycle should land first (wheels down, head up) wrong, and ended up being ambulanced out due to concussion and/or other injuries. We hope they recover.

For now then, we consider this jump formally christened as "ambulance leap", and will warn the adults going out to enjoy it that it doesn't matter how much you spend on a bicycle, kids who spend time on a BMX park can do things you can't. Money is not a substitute for skill, and skill comes by putting in the hours.

Reminiscing about the time before the war began

We see this video of Bristol on a weekday last week.

It looks to us like old market to counterslip lane then down to the St Mary Redcliff roundabout, a loop back towards queen's square, along the harbour front then up Prince Street towards Baldwin Street.

Some people say this is an anti-cycling road design, but the reality is this congestion is a result of the war on motoring. Prince Street bridge was made alternating to cars, hence the congestion on Prince Street and nearby. Queen's square was converted from a dual-carriageway to a so-called-public-square a decade ago, and all those people stuck in the Redcliffe roundabout will be reminiscing about the temporary flyover they took down late last century.

Campaign against red lights

We've decided to copy the other local media outlets and MPs hoping to be reelected, by starting to campaign against red lights. As the evening post rightfully points out, cars, buses, bicycles and pedestrians just need to get on better. That means you, pedestrians -stop blocking our way.

Rather than go through various committees, we are going to advocate ignoring red lights completely. Here's a start on Stokes Croft, as viewed from Ashley Road. You can see from the cars in the sprint-finish when the lights on the croft change, and then it all goes quiet as pedestrians get their 20 seconds.



You can hear an ambulance coming, which forces drivers to give way. What to do? Pull forwards into the junction? You could be blocking it. So S57HBW solves the problem by turning off the road, going over the green man.

Notice how some of the pedestrians were not looking around while they crossed on the green man; many had hoods on, others umbrellas. After the car has crossed, someone runs across -talking on a phone. That's dangerous; if she'd been hit she'd have been another "pedestrian on the phone" statistic. If troublemakers like Crap Cycling in Waltham Forest can go on about car drivers on the phone, we should be able to denounce pedestrians walking dangerously.

That's the kind of give and take we need: they give us the right to turn while they have the green man, and we take it.

School trouble

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Columbine massacre, an event that not only brought tragedy to many, but is why whenever police and ambulance get called out to a school, everyone worries, especially the parents.

For an as yet unknown reason the paramedics came screaming up to the top entrance to the St Peter's and Paul's primary school in Cotham at:16:50 this afternoon, -and hour later there was a row of police cars.

Access has been fenced off, the police were removing a few paper bags of stuff

Meanwhile, up on the roundabout, the local commuters where helping to calm traffic by blocking the junction.

There's no news yet on why the ambulance/police were round, hopefully it's something minor.

Not seen on Casualty

As this ambulance was being brought in at 4pm on a Friday, it will probably stay there all weekend before anyone takes a look at it.

Hopefully there is some checklist like "make sure there is no patient in the back before you lock up for the night"

self-degrading bike lanes

When the car lanes are too narrow -as here, on Whiteladies Road, where two southbound lanes try and squeeze alongside the bike lane, the bike lane suffers.

It was too narrow a lane anyway, you shouldn't really use as it is too dangerous. Locals know that; it's documented on Bristol Streets. But what about visitors -how will they know it's dangerous?

That's where the self-degrading paint comes into its own. If you paint a bike lane in a paint that is strong enough to withstand bike use, the lane stays red -bike lane. But where cars, buses and here, ambulances, go down the lane, their accelerating and braking tyres scrape off the red, leaving black underneath.

This provides a valuable cue to visitors that this is not really a bike lane, and should be avoided unless they are tired of life.

Airspace

The Kingsdown Residents are a bit worried about plans to land a helicopter on top of the BRI; it's a classic stitch up of mock-consultation (ehere a note acknowledging receipt of the warning is used as proof of consultation) and accompanying documentation, all of which is in the planning application.

The business case document is interesting, the rationales for the 'copter being many:

• the helicopter is funded through charitable donations, so not from existing budgets. Hopefully that includes fuel costs.
  
• it avoids the congestion of getting from Frenchay, Filton, or other parts of the city where helicopters can land.
  
• it makes it easier to bring in RTA and other critical casualties into A&E
• it makes it easier to do by-helicopter transfer between other hospitals
• all the other parts of the country have them.

So, either its a status symbol for other health authorities, a valuable part of the health care system, or something to compensate for all the traffic jams in the city.

What is interesting is the noise study, which shows that Kingsdown and nearby areas don't gain from having the air ambulance. Because although ambulances were noisy, they always came in the front of the BRI, along the main road. Now they will go over your house. As long as you sleep with the windows closed, it won't be "significantly" above the BS8233 noise level standards for noise levels that disturb your sleep.

People who live near the hospital come off worst, but according to the study that's OK, as there aren't that many. "It is therefore considered that the overall impact of the proposed Air Ambulance Service is small and therefore that planning permission should be granted."

What is lacking from this assessment (or the business case) is any estimate of the number of flights a day and their times, and whether there will be a change in the estimate number of ambulance journeys. Without which, you can't say how noisy it will be, what impact it will have on the city. That said, given that every Friday and Saturday night the Police helicopter is out and about, it probably won't add to the noise levels of that part of town. It would be interesting to see a noise level study of that vehicle's travels.

Cotham RTA

People say there is no community in Cotham, but when a large crunching sound happens in the street at 9 in the evening, all the neighbourhood comes out to see what happened. The driver of the Corsa was sitting down in a daze and not in any obvious need of first aid. Which was good, given the only trained first aider was myself, and on our last site training exercise we lost three of the two patients -from preventable issues. Here I got to stick up the hazard signs and take some pictures.

A red ford escort van had been descending Cotham Road, probably at or below the 30 mph speed limit. There is an 20mph sign, but it's a hint only to be ignored on school hours. A silver Corsa appears to have made a right turn into the path of this van, being hit hard enough to rotate round and do serious damage to both vehicles. With the fuel leakage and all, whoever dialled 999 asked for the set: Police, Ambulance and Fire.

While waiting for these to turn up, friends of the Corsa driver "mysteriously" turned up, at which point the driver tried to do a runner. This is where the Cotham community kicked in, as we managed to stop the driver and hold him there until the authorities arrived. That's what they don't show on Casualty, nor do they show that its the fire brigade who turn up first, as the police and both ambulances are busy in the city centre with the usual Friday night festivities.

When the police and ambulance did turn up, the Corsa driver was stuck in the ambulance and then, apparently, detained by the police, allegedly due to them being drunk.


What is apparent is that even at "urban" 30 mph speeds, a car-car collision is enough to do serious damage to cars, possibly even write them both off. The Escort van was built by Ford from its traditional balsa wood material, and without features such as air bags or ABS. The manufacturers fought tooth and nail against airbags being mandatory, because that would reduce profits (increased sales of unequipped cars, and the premium pricing of the feature for drivers who wanted it), and still make safety features -ABS, anti-skid, etc, as options except on fast cars whose engines make the features irrelevant. It is possible that here they could have made a difference.

What is also apparent is when such a collision occurs, it helps to have active engagement from the community. Not lynching the driver who screwed up, just retention, basic first aid, that kind of thing. Drivers should consider carrying a disposable camera for photographs -one with a flash.

Finally, know the laws of the road. Not just the "don't drive drunk" rule, but the fact that only the driver is liable. Because that Corsa appeared to have a head-shaped dent in the passenger side of the windscreeen, the side with no airbag. Yet no passenger. Whoever hit the window did a runner before anyone could get out and see what was up, possibly to call their friends over and get help home. Yet they didn't need to. They could have waited and been seen by an ambulance. Still, getting into a car with a driver who has been drinking is not what one would call a smart move; you can't expect them to think through the followup either. I believe my son has learned this lesson from watching the whole event instead of going to bed, and he was very proud of how his dad helped stop someone running away.

Mistakes: your purpose in life may be to serve as a warning to others

Oxford 4: The intermittent value of helmets

Just along from the Oxford cycle path of dubious value was an ambulance and bicycle. What were they doing

Looking after the cyclist who had come off -no car involved, seemingly- and hit the kerb

After which a large amount of blood was deposited over the scene

Head injuries always bleed a lot, so that may not be a sign of a bad injury, just a messy one. But it does show that sometimes helmets do have a role to play.

Perhaps once the risks of going under a lorry or bus have been eliminated, its time to worry about what happens when you fall off .

Emergency Services

Casualty were out filming near the railway path today; some fictional incident involving firemen, police and, obviously ambulances

Having seen a real RTA outside our house at the weekend, I can point out some fundamental differences. The key one being that in fiction the police actually turn up.

Whereas in reality, when the (alleged) drunk driver tries to do a runner, its up to us bystanders to grab him, and, when they turn up, for the firemen to hang around until the police have a spare vehicle. Which, on a busy weekend evening, appears to take some time