About a month ago, Jesse and I took a course in Accident Scene Management. This is to teach riders what to do for a fellow rider in the event of a crash. Women On Wheels® paid for half the cost of the two day course. It was a great value even without the reimbursement. The knowledge you come away with is more valuable than many people realize.
 |
| Angie not looking too healthy |
Cooper came to the second day of the course. At the end of this day the teachers, Gail and Dave Riley, set up a scenario where there is an accident scene. The other students taking the course pretend they are in a group ride and come up on the accident. They have to assess the scene and treat the victims. Jesse, Cooper and I played victims in the scenario. Another friend named Angie in the class was a victim also.
Our scenario was that, a woman (me) was walking her dog (Cooper). A bicyclist (Angie) almost got hit by a car and swerved into the path of the motorcyclist (Jesse). The motorcycle swerved to miss Angie (who crashed into bushes and was injured) and hit Cooper, seriously injuring him. I was uninjured, but in emotional shock. The motorcyclist (Jesse) after hitting Cooper, hit a wall and was seriously injured with multiple injuries.
 |
| Jesse and Cooper in stage make-up |
We had to do this scene inside because the weather outside was terrible. We had to pretend to have a motorcycle, and we had a real bicycle. Jesse, Cooper and Angie all had to wear make-up. I was supposed to be sweating from going into shock. Cooper was to lay across my lap unconscious. The scene would play out for 15 minutes. I wasn’t sure what Cooper was going to do when all the other people came up to evaluate and treat us for injuries. Once they started working on me he may have wanted to see what they were doing. I told him to ‘stay’ whenever he moved during our practice time. He did fine, but the real test was about to play out.
 |
| Cooper acting injured |
The other members came upstairs and around the corner. They saw Jesse , me and Cooper first. Angie was around the corner hidden from view. Cooper started to pay a little attention to the familiar people but I gave him a quiet command to be still. He was awesome! He laid across my lap the whole time. I complained of shock symptoms and was covered with a blanket. The blanket was put right over Cooper and he didn’t move. When they raised my legs, he just rolled with my moving legs and remained motionless. It was unbelievable to see him do exactly as I asked with all that commotion.
 |
| Getting his patches |
 |
| Cooper with his patches |
At the end of the 15 minutes, we all regrouped and went down stairs to the classroom again. We talked about all we experienced and were given our patches for the course. Cooper was given patches too for his participation. He really was something else. He didn’t care that I put fake blood all over him and around one side of his mouth. Nothing bothered him. We can just add this to his collection of fun stories to tell.
 |
| Gail and Dave Riley with Cooper |
No comments:
Post a Comment