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North East phone app could save bikers lives

Ambulance service backs local innovation

A new phone app which helps the North East Ambulance Service locate motorcyclists involved in an accident - even if they are incapacitated - could save 1,000s of lives.

The RealRider app uses complex algorithms connected to a smartphone  to determine when a crash has occurred.

The system has now been thoroughly tested and adopted by the North East Ambulance Service. RealRider has been developed by Newcastle- based management team Andrew Richardson and Zoe Farrington.

John Rowland, Control Systems Manager for the North East Ambulance Service, said: "I think Real Rider is an absolutely brilliant application. It is really useful tool that has the potential to save bikers' lives. It means we can hopefully get medical attention to people much faster."

More than 13,000 people have already signed up as users.

Using smartphone technology, RealRider  connects an injured rider directly to the North East Ambulance Control Room after detecting a crash. Powered by REALsafe®, the app sends a rider's GPS location, mobile number and vital medical information into the control team who attempt to make contact with the rider wherever they are in the UK.

The app also allows motorcyclists to track their rides, and record points of interest.

Miracle motorcyclist, Anthony Margrave, from East Yorkshire, survived three days in a ditch after crashing his bike on September 9 last year and is now backing RealRider.

Margrave, 40, hit the headlines when he didn't make it home. Three days later, after a massive manhunt, he was found barely alive.

"I know I couldn't have survived another night," he said. "I was in and out of consciousness the whole time and was close to giving up.

"If I'd had Real Rider then the emergency services would have been alerted to my crash. They would have tried to contact me, and when I wasn't able to pick up and stopped moving, they would have deployed an ambulance to my GPS co-ordinates. I would have had medical assistance well within the hour. That would have made a huge difference to me."

Margrave suffered a spinal injury that has left him with only partial movement of his arms and legs.