Many people ride two-wheeled transportation devices yearlong for exercise, for enjoyment, or to help them in their job. Recently there has been an influx on the streets of electric scooters and bikes that have small electrical converters and motors. These “bikes” enable the fast food and pizza delivery people to deliver their products faster throughout the neighborhood. The warmer weather also brings out a lot of motorcycles, both street legal and unregistered dirt bikes. It’s not uncommon to find a group of people riding together performing stunts and maneuvers in and out of moving traffic. It’s no wonder we see an abundance of motorcycle incidents occur in the summer months.
Pulling up on the scene of an automobile vs. a motorcycle can be a devastating sight. Because of the makeup of the motorcycle and no safety belts, we can expect to find the rider and possibly a passenger off the bike and lying in precarious positions on the roadway; or, they have serious injuries and are on or off the bike wedged under a vehicle. It’s a good idea at these scenes to survey the surrounding area for victims who may have been thrown a good distance off the bike.
At this particular incident, the driver and motorcycle slid under the rear of a vehicle and were pinned. Somehow the fuel line was compromised, spewing gasoline, which ignited. We had not only an injured and trapped victim but also a fire to contend with. Immediately, members stretched a line as another member expelled an extinguisher to put out the fire. Since we blocked the entire exit ramp with the apparatus, we didn’t have to worry about vehicles approaching or endangering our operations. As the semiconscious operator moaned and groaned, we realized getting him out from under the auto was going to be difficult because of his and the motorcycle’s positions under the car near the rear axle.
Two members went back to the apparatus for the air bag setup (controls, hoses, and air supply) and two air bags; other members went back to retrieve the hydraulic bottle and floor jacks, step chocks, and milk crates full of cribbing. We could have used either set of tools, but because of the victim’s medical condition and the position of the bike and car, it was easiest and quickest to use the jacks. Some members held spinal traction on the victim and worked to remove his helmet to put on the C-collar. As they worked around the victim’s neck, removing the helmet’s chin strap, they noticed his shirt was smoldering and had to stop what they were doing and use the pressurized water can to put out the remaining fire on the victim.
Prior to lifting the auto, members set the emergency brake, since both rear wheels were still in contact with the ground, and chocked the two front wheels to prevent the auto from rolling forward. Since they couldn’t access the rear, they had to access the transmission hub from the side. Before lifting, they cribbed the vehicle with step chocks on both sides to prevent the vehicle from tilting to one side and pinning the victim more if the lift was off center. Also, if any type of accident occurred during the lift (i.e., a jack slipped out from under the load, the roadway gave way, or the jack failed), the load would not drop onto the victim. Members brought additional cribbing to both sides of the vehicle to box crib it as they lifted the load.
Remember, the method called box cribbing supports the load and normally uses wooden or plastic blocks, depending on what your department owns. Two of the most important safety factors are to ensure you’re not under the load as you lift and to crib as you lift. That’s why it’s very important to also carry angular wedge chocks in your tool cache so you can insert them as you lift or you can use them if your blocks won’t fit into position when your lift is complete. Always work from outside the lift zone, sliding the blocks into position, and place each layer in the opposite direction of the tier above or below it. Using three or more blocks when cribbing ensures more contact points to stabilize, support, and distribute the weight of the load across all the blocks.
The lifting process began, and a member stood on the opposite side of the vehicle from the jack to watch the car’s movement during the lift even though someone was cribbing this side also. The floor jack quickly lifted the vehicle, but the motorcycle still pinned the victim’s leg as the members tried to slide him up onto the backboard.
Realizing we couldn’t lift any higher with the jack unless we cribbed our load and used a higher base for the jack, we quickly formulated another plan of action. We placed a single block of cribbing under the auto and a few inches away from the motorcycle frame. Then we placed a 52-inch halligan’s forks over the block and under the motorcycle frame. We pressed down on the opposite end of the halligan and used it as a giant lever to lift the motorcycle off the victim’s pinned leg while we slid a step chock under the bike to crib it. We quickly pulled the victim out and slid him onto the backboard, successfully extricating him.
Before your summer gets into full swing, check your jacks, cribbing, and tactics at a drill before you’re called to a cyclist pinned.
MICHAEL N. CIAMPO is a 29-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant in the Fire Department of New York. Previously, he served with the District of Columbia Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is the lead instructor for the FDIC Truck Essentials H.O.T. program. He wrote the Ladder chapter and co-authored the Ventilation chapter for Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II (Fire Engineering, 2009) and is featured in “Training Minutes” truck company videos on www.FireEngineering.com.
