Bystanders can help at accidents

The American nurse and rider arrives in Melbourne this week to bring a message of help for motorcycle riders injured at accident scenes.

She will be accompanied by nurse Vicki Sanfelipo, who founded Accident Scene Management in America in 1996.

They are here to promote their Bystander Assistance training course they developed over the past 16 years.

Hammes was involved in a motorcycle crash several years ago and suffered two skull fractures, five fractured cervical veterbrae, a collapsed lung and lost her left leg below the knee.

She says two bikers pulled up and used techniques learned in an ASM course to care for her until emergency services arrived. Her treating doctors believe she would have died if not for the aid of the trained bikers.

Hammes no longer works as a nurse but is now an ASM instructor. Sanfelipo developed the courses for bikers when she realised her nursing training was insufficient to cover a motorcycle accident and that bikers would typically be the first on the scene.

The women will conduct the Bystander Assistance course with the aid of Accident Scene Management Australia (ASMA) executive director, Phil Lemin.

The paramedic and motorcycle rider did the course in June last year in the US and returned to the US in October to become a lead instructor and finalise negotiations to establish the ASMA. Lemin says Australia is the first place to pick up the ASM programs.

"We have had test classes here in Australia and they have been well received," he says. "The classes are much more than first aid, and have some really good practical advice."

The women will be at Victory Motorcycles, Melbourne, on Saturday and Sunday (May 7-8), conduct training with invited participants at the Travel Inn on May 13 and 14, and take part in an International Women's Ride on May 14.

Visit: www.asma.org.au