There is continued debate in the SAR community, as well as in our SAR forums, about the usefulness of mountain bikes for search and rescue. So I thought I would investigate a team that is set-up around the use of mountain bikes for both medical response and search and rescue.

ATBRU (All Terrain Bike Responder Unit) is a new outfit based in Worcestershire that aims to provide "faster access to medical care, greater scope for operations on search tasks and missing person searches, and support to the people of Worcestershire and surrounding areas in times of need in regard to the protection of lives and property" through the use of mountain bikes.

I asked Leigh Robinson to tell me more...

We are a new team so things are still under development. We are currently working towards developing a bike centred organisation for medical response, and for search purposes. We are currently working through the approval route for the ambulance service primarily, but eventually through the police. Our biggest issue regarding search is that a team already has the ALSAR approval for this area. We are looking to work in a support role for existing teams.

It all began in July 2009 following assistance by some of the now team with a medical incident on the Mlavern Hills. It became apparent that the team could use mountain bikes to offer something extra in emergency response. Following a period of discussion, research and investigation, ATBRU was formed late in 2009.

Although new, the team boasts 14 members to date with a number more awaiting approval for probationary membership. The team boasts ambulance technicians, a paramedic, an A & E nurse, plus mountain bike and road riding instructors. We also have 2 medical and first aid instructors. We are members of association of first aiders and the institute of learning. This means that we can offer medical / first aid training to our team, and other community groups.

As we are waiting final approval we have only had 4 emergencies to date, all medical, and all a co-incidence of opportunity. We will be looking at going on call with the ambulance service and will be operating as bike based community first responders. We have plans for 4 ambulance bikes to be operational by mid 2010. Each bike costs £2700 each, with rider equipment coming in at £400 per person. We have 2 grants in the pipeline totalling £17000. They have been approved and we are now awaiting the final paperwork.

Once our first grant has been received we will be registering as a charity. We have a station venue lined up but we need to raise the funds to buy the portakabin and a container. Finally, we have plans to buy a landrover within the next 12 months.

We face some interesting challenges, in that we need to win over the public, and other organisations who view bike response with sceptism. We believe our structure is new, original, but valuable. We are looking to develop bike approaches to SAR operations and I have recently put the finishing touches to a training programme for bike SAR operations. We are looking to work with CTC to produce a recognised qualifcation.

We recently signed Mark Beaumont, the round world cycle record holder, as our patron. Mark has given us a great boost and has opened new doors for us.

In summing up, I can only say watch this space. Time is on our side as we don't have to rush to develop. We will hopefully be fully operational within the next 12 months.

Do you have any questions or comments about this article? You can discuss this now in our forum post on ATBRU SAR.

 

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ATBRU SAR