Three hours unattended after accident

A 29 year old male and his 34 year old girl friend took a brand new Honda CBR 600 2007 model for a test drive at approximately 23h00 on 19 January 2007. A 23 year old friend waited at the Honda Midrand where the driver of the bike works. The driver was supposed to take the girl for a “spin” on the bike and then return to fetch his 23 year old friend, who apparently also works at Honda Midrand.

[The Honda CBR 600 2007 model is a brand new bike, and was only brought into the country and put together yesterday. The nationwide launch of this new bike is suppose to take place today (20 January 2007), now with no bike.]

Whilst the 23 year old male patiently waited at the garage, he received a phone call from the girl letting him know that they were “wiped” off the bike. The call was placed at about 23h30. The girl could not move at the stage and only tell him that she is lying somewhere. She could only see a CHIVAS Advertisement Board and she thinks she is next to the Ben Schoeman highway direction Pretoria.

The 23 old gentleman frantically started searching for his friends and contacted ER24 to assist. ER24 launched a Search and Rescue with five emergency vehicles and 11 paramedics, in the area where they were last at. He (the 23 year old friend) later found an off duty Fire Fighter Volunteer and asked for assistance. They both started their search in different directions.

We found a CHIVAS Ad on the highway next to Vodaworld. We searched the whole area and could not find anything indicating a bike accident. After more than an hour’s search we thought that this is a hoax call. The cell phone signal was “pinged” to the area and the cellular company confirmed that the call was made from the Vodaworld area. The search continued.

ER24 paramedics from all over Johannesburg joined up underneath the CHIVAS Ad on the highway to plan the next step. At this stage we decided to switch on the sirens of all the vehicles, whilst in contact with the girl. She immediately said she can hear the sirens very clear. In the meanwhile the 23 year old friend, took a wrong turn in Pharmaceutical road – across the highway - and was looking at the CHIVAS Ad from the other side. He also heard the sirens and ran towards it. With this, he discovered a hole in the fence. He then ran towards the highway to meet up with the paramedics from ER24. Moments later we discovered the hole in the security fence was made by the bike. We found the bike scattered in pieces.

When paramedics arrived two critical injured bike riders were lying in the grass next to their bike. They were both cold and sustained severe injuries. The driver of the bike sustained multiple head injuries, possible scull fractures and chest injuries. The girl could barely move, she sustained major chest and pelvic injuries. They were both rapidly stabilized by ER24 paramedics and transported to hospital. The 29 year old male was transported to Sandton MediClinic in a critical condition. The 34 year old girl was transported with another ambulance to the Fourways Life Hospital.

If these two patients weren’t rescued, they probably would have been dead by morning.

A joint effort of team work and dedicated paramedics made the rescue possible. She is lucky to have had her Cell phone near her and the call could be “pinged” to the nearest tower location.

Thank you to everyone involved; our emergency dispatcher from ER24, the paramedics and especially to the off duty fire fighter that truly lived up to his calling, a volunteer.