The 'Lighter side' revisited, 2010.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

Mate of mine from the village who raced FFords at Castle Combe fell off his horse and broke his back similar to my injury from Spa. Air Ambulance called as he was out in the woods and some way off the road. That's the reason i have asked for the money to go to them this year. You have a very valid point and i totally agree.

I read somewhere, I think related to an article about the charity operation that runs our local air ambulance, that horse related accidents account for more of its callouts than anything else. Now that seems a little strange given the number of times we see it airborne and certainly around here it does a lot of trips up the M1, but that might be old information from when it was mostly called out when nothing else was suitable. My concern now is that that 'nothing else' criteria is being eroded simply because recognition is enhancing the flow of funds.

I know you are a horse owner Iain but I have to mention that statistically horse riding, per unit of use, is one of the most dangerous passtimes there is in terms of fatalities and severe injuries. Of course our government would have us believe that cars, or even worse - motorbikes, take that 'honour'.

That statistics may not hold for the last year or two based on the potential for less horse activity in a recession but seem to have been fairly consistent in the past (though potentially difficult to assess accurately.)

Of course there is an argument that says the more they fly the better will be their experience and so the service will be improved. That may be true and you could consider any call out to be 'training'. Nevertheless I think we should be vigilant enough not to assume that 'things are OK' when experiences in other areas suggest that often they are not.