Riding home from soccer tonight, I came across a scene of people standing around a guy named Todd who’d had a nasty spill taking a corner a bit too fast. No one hit him, he simply went around a corner and lost his grip and the next moment he was flat on his back and was wavering in and out of consciousness.

The side of his face was covered in blood, his body was all distorted lying on the ground and some other cyclists that were passing by stopped to lend a hand keeping him still while they waited for the paramedics to arrive.

This was not Todd’s night.

It was fortunate that people with CPR training were there to keep him completely still until help arrived. My friend, Kristi, that I was riding with is a firefighter from Delta and so she jumped in immediately to help out where she could, as well.

About 10-15 minutes after we got there, Todd finally seemed to stir and kept asking what had happened, the last thing he remembered was them playing frisbee earlier in the night. This was a nasty spill indeed.

But even though Todd may have taken that corner a little too fast, he did wear a helmet, and that definitely saved him from having a *very* bad night.

Talking to Kristi afterwards, she mentioned that the blood that covered half his face was the result of the side of the helmet digging into his skin, and you can imagine the impact that it must have taken for a helmet to cut Todd up like that. And the likelihood for things to have been much, much worse had he not worn a helmet.

Todd’s at VGH right now being treated, just one of an estimated 400,000 preventable injuries that happen every year in B.C.

Big kudos go to the parademics that were first on scene who did a fantastic job in assessing the situation and getting Todd ready for transport to the hospital in short order; we’re very fortunate to have some of the best parademics and firefighters in the world to respond to situations like this.

Todd, I wish you a speedy recovery and safer journeys from now on…