Keep your vital information under your hat

Now you can save  your life by keeping your head.

Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA) and Bon Secours Virginia Health System, along with Motorcycle Virginia, Inc., are providing identification cards you can put in your helmet to give emergency crews a heads up as to who you are and exactly what your other problems are besides the obvious motorcycle-related ones to which they've responded.

The data cards, officially known as Rider Alert cards, are placed inside your helmets where they are subject to sweat and other interesting chemical reactions. The cards include emergency contacts and important medical history like the fact that penicillin makes you die.

Fill it out. Put it under the lining of your helmet. Peel off the sticker that comes with it and put it on the right side of the helmet or helmet visor.

Keep your card under your hat

When first responders arrive on the scene of a motorcycle accident, that one-inch, round sticker gives them a heads up. The sticker also warns bystanders not to remove the helmet being as the last thing you want is some idiot tugging your helmet off and taking your head with it.

In developing the Rider Alert card, RAA talked with riders and crews to decide the best way to provide rider emergency contact and medical information.

Rob Lawrence, chief operating officer of Richmond Ambulance Authority, said the card "is born out of experience – it has been designed by paramedics who have been on both sides of an accident as the injured rider or as medical help. Accessing this basic information after a motorcycle accident can sometimes be impossible. This small tool could mean the difference between life and death.”

In 2010,  76 riders died across the state, including four in Jeffersonia. That was up from 71 fatalities in 2009. In the four local cases, the card would have made little difference except to let next of kin know quicker, but in some of the 2,000-plus crashes that involved injuries, the card could make a big difference.

The card is similar to a British program called CRASH Card, now in use by more than 325,000 riders.  The Rider Alert card program is the first of its kind in the United States.

Rider Alert cards will be available at the Richmond Ambulance Authority, Chesterfield Fire and Rescue station and New Kent County Fire station, as well as through partnerships Motorcycle Virginia has established, including local members of the Virginia Motorcycle Dealers Association.

In addition, the cards can be accessed via the Rider Alert card website.