Or why I spent Saturday lying around on the floor of Liddington Village Hall near Swindon, in all my bike kit, being prodded and poked at and then prodding and poking (and trying not to rip noses off) in return. Not me being in an accident but Emergency Action for Motorcyclists.

As you might possibly guess from the name this is a first aid course aimed specifically at bikers and the type of accident they might come across (bike and rider parted company, possibly in spectacular fashion), especially if going on a group ride out or similar. (There was also a bit of a nod towards dealing with car occupants as well, just in case.)

I've done a few basic first aid courses in the past but compared to "here's a triangular bandage, this is what you do with it" this one was much more engaging because it was working with a scenario in mind and built up the various bits, from arrival on scene onwards. All this was done in a gradual fashion, repeating the most important steps a number of times during the day and with lots of practical work, in the stuff we'd be likely to be wearing at the time and working on a subject also wearing heavy, thick clothing with bits of armour and stuff, which is pretty much worse case for trying to prod, poke and move someone around, with helmets included where appropriate. At each point the possible decisions were examined so it could be decided what would be a reasonable thing to do at any point (e.g. move/don't move the casualty, do/don't remove the helmet) in order to best preserve life.

Do this course and chances are you'll know more about removing the helmet of a crash victim than a paramedic, since they'll have only done it for a very short while as part of basic training. They get paramedics and other emergency services types come on this course for that very reason.

If you haven't done a first aid course for a while and don't need the full four day HSE first aider for work thing then I'd highly recommend this (or the car version). Mark and Charlie were great instructors (and brought their own experiences of being accident victims!)

(The ripping off noses refers to the "piggy nose" effect when doing helmet removal. Ow!)