Lishaw Burn, Kielder Forest

Incident Type: Rescue

With the the_dirty_reiver gravel bike event in Kielder Forest in full swing, one rider had an unfortunate accident. The rider came off the forest track by a bridge and fell down into the river below, sustaining potentially serious impact injuries from the crash.

The North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust requested ourselves and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team given the remote location and it was unclear whether a Double Crewed Ambulance (DCA) would reach the location. Given the seriousness of the incident the Teams were swiftly mobilised with four 4×4 response vehicles deployed on blue lights.

As team members began to arrive at the RVP, Curlew Echo with the four team members proceeded to the incident site with the DCA.
By this stage, the event medical team and NEAS Community Paramedic were on scene with the casualty. The NEAS Paramedics treated and stablised the casualty.

With the casualty in a stable condition the ambulance crew drove the out of the forest, escorted by Curlew Echo and then onto hospital.

The incident involved 19 Team members for 4 hours and 5 minutes.