A biker’s crash near England’s highest pub features in the next episode of Helicopter ER, a reality TV series featuring the work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Biker Robin Brown was riding with a friend towards the Tan Hill Inn in poor visibility last January when he hit a gulley and was catapulted off his bike.
A passing car stopped and took the 62-year-old lorry driver to the pub where the emergency services were called.
Despite very poor flying conditions, Yorkshire Air Ambulance managed to reach the remote Dales spot 1,732 ft above sea level.
Robin was airlifted to the James Cook Hospital in just 16 minutes – a journey that would have taken an hour and 20 minutes by road ambulance.
The father-of-two from Eastmoor, Wakefield, suffered a punctured lung and a broken ankle in the accident. Robin spent four months recovering from his injuries and is still having physiotherapy, but
knows he is very lucky to have survived a high-speed crash in such a remote location.
“We hadn’t done the route before and I just misread the road and hit the bank. I flew up and off the bike and was saved because I was wearing all the right equipment,” he said.
“I am also so very grateful to the air ambulance for getting to me in what were horrible conditions and then flying me to hospital so quickly. I can’t thank them enough.”
Robin’s accident features in next Tuesday’s (December 20) episode of Helicopter ER, the award-winning Really channel programme that follows the life-saving work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
The programme also features a teenager who suffered multiple injuries after a tyre blow-out at 70mph, a climber who fell 30ft from a rock face at Stanage Edge in the Peak District and a DIY job that went badly wrong.
Serving a population of approximately five million people across Yorkshire’s three million acres, YAA operates two air ambulances from airbases at The Nostell Priory Estate near Wakefield and RAF Topcliffe near Thirsk, plus two Rapid Response Vehicles.
The rapid response air emergency service needs to raise £19,000 every day to keep its two helicopters flying.
To find out more, go to www.yorkshireairambulance.org.uk
