A Dorset consultant on his DocBike leads the fight against motorcycle accidents across the UK – with action, data, education and innovation
Struck by the alarming number of motorbike fatalities on Dorset’s roads, Dr Ian Mew knew that action was needed. Rather than responding to accidents, he realised it would be better to prevent them entirely – and began a mission that has saved countless lives across the county and beyond.
As a consultant in intensive care and anaesthetics at Dorset County Hospital, Dr Mew, who is a member of the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance crew (need to add that) and founder of DocBike, has become a leading figure in road safety and life-saving innovation not just in Dorset but across the UK.
How DocBike began
‘As director of major trauma at Dorset County Hospital, I saw patients dying before they even reached hospital.’ Ian says. ‘Joining the air ambulance, I thought I could change that – but motorcyclists still often didn’t survive. The forces involved when a motorcyclist crashes are often simply too great to be survivable. To truly save lives, I realised we needed to prevent these accidents altogether. That’s where DocBike began.
‘When the air ambulance lands in a field, everyone is always really pleased to see us, and they come to say hello. Talking to motorcyclists has always been tricky – they traditionally haven’t wanted to speak to the police, and they’re not that interested in talking about road safety issues. But many are enthusiastic fundraisers for the air ambulance, and I realised that was a way we could get to talk to them.’
Prevention is better
All of the volunteer DocBike riders are serving emergency doctors, paramedics or practitioners who look after critically ill and injured patients as part of their day job, and all have completed an emergency service provided motorcycle response course.
Even bigger than the roadside critical care team is the work DocBike does with its Biker Down programme, teaching motorcyclists how to provide first aid at crash scenes and offering practical advice on avoiding accidents altogether.
‘Data shows that while motorcyclists aren’t always at fault, understanding the risks can reduce their chances of an accident, by up to 80 per cent,’ says Ian.
‘For example, if you are riding a motorcycle on a straight road with junctions on either side, you clearly have right of way. But motorcyclists appear like a dart to someone in a car waiting to pull out – that’s not well understood by a lot of bikers, who naturally assume the car waiting has seen them. So the biker carries on, never considering that they might not have been seen.
‘In Dorset we have been working really hard with motorcyclists to help them understand that although they have the right of way, and people would give way to them if they saw them, other road users may actually not have seen them due to their low profile, and so will just pull out. To avoid an accident, bikers have to be prepared to stop – even though, legally, they have the right of way.
‘We’re careful not to pit road users against each other. We believe in sharing the road. It’s about helping motorcyclists understand it is not necessarily the fault of the car driver, it’s how our brains are built. We’re designed to look out for woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers, not people hurtling towards us on a narrow, fast bit of metal.
‘Because the team attends these crashes and sees what happens, we can work with the road safety partnerships to obtain the actual data and examples of why people crash. That means we can give tips, and ultimately we have reduced bike accidents by 80 percent. We can’t say categorically that it’s DocBike that has caused the reduction in motorcycle fatalities in Dorset, but they have reduced by 50 per cent in the last two years – and that figure has not been seen in other areas where we are not operating.’
Life at the sharp end
DocBike started in Dorset in 2015, and achieved charitable status in 2018. There are now branches in Devon, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Sussex and Cheshire.
Ian first came to came to DCH as a medical student. He returned to finish his training London, met his wife, and they both returned to Dorset as junior doctors.
‘I spent two years in surgery,’ he explains. ‘Then I did some intensive care and really enjoyed it. It’s amazing that the skillset of intensive care can now be taken into people’s houses and to the roadside with the helicopter. It has made a massive difference to patient care.
‘Emergency care is demanding. After being a consultant for 15 years I sometimes wonder why I am still involved at the sharp end. It can be relentless. But being able to make a difference to people who are otherwise going to die … it’s very humbling.
‘However, it is also demanding. You work through the night, miss Christmasses and holidays and it takes a toll on family life.
But it needs to be done, and doing it well at the appropriate time makes a massive difference. The air ambulance takes the hospital’s critical care one step further – being able to go directly to the patient and deal with them, anaesthetise them, give them blood, and then get them direct to a major centre with heart, brain and trauma surgery, saves the patient hours in getting treatment – and maybe their life.
‘I’m really lucky with the support DocBike gets from the ambulance service and the hospital. We all work for the benefit of the population, and it’s sometimes frustrating when the system gets in the way and when funding isn’t there. But we rally around and help each other. That’s lovely … It is a family.’
In 2022, Ian won a special ‘Big Thank You’ award from The One Show, and the late Hairy Biker Dave Myers highlighted the fact that Ian runs DocBike entirely in his spare time.
‘It’s hard – you can easily do another 40 hours a week on top of your NHS job. The problem is the NHS survives because people already donate a lot of time to it. For DocBike, finding volunteers has been a huge challenge.’
Reducing the Risk
When Ian started DocBike, he began with the data: he found that the motorcyclists most at risk of dying on Dorset’s roads were men aged between 40 and 60.
‘When we did our original research in 2016, we combined our own hospital data with police collision investigations. The 40 to 60-year-old men were riding at high speed in rural areas, where, if you got it wrong, it would often result in a fatality.
‘Because we have targeted that over the last eight years, the demographics have actually changed. Now, here in Dorset, that group is less likely to be involved in a crash. So now we’re targeting the younger generation to try and almost “vaccinate” them from an earlier age. We’re also working with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, who write the tests, because the information we learn from road collisions can help to reduce crashes if we can include that in the motorcycle test in the future. It might be something we can engineer out if you are only allowed to ride a motorcycle if you are aware of the things that put you most at risk.
‘DocBike has sponsored a PhD student at Bournemouth University to look into the causes of motorcycle incidents and what can be done to avoid them. The country roads in Dorset are a delight for people to ride. To get the most out of a motorcycle you like everything to be twisty and turny – that’s the fun bit. But there are also hazards.
If you have a crash in a town you tend to be driving at a lower speed so the forces involved are not so great. If you are on a national speed limit road then that tends to be more hazardous if you crash.’
Looking to the future
Space is at a premium on a DocBike motorcycle, so equipment has to be chosen wisely. It also has to be compact, vibration resistant and waterproof. This equipment, small enough to fit on a motorcycle yet robust enough to withstand significant vibrations, is expensive. It currently costs £62,000 to get a DocBike motorcycle on the road, with all the training and kit.
‘Realistically our biggest challenge right now is sustainability. We are entirely volunteer-led and with seven branches across the country, all with their groups of volunteers, being able to deliver full support from people who already work long hours at the ‘day job’ is a challenge. We need staffing to provide that and to have staff you need funding.
‘I now have a deputy national director, also a volunteer, and someone else to run Dorset, so that frees me up to look at things nationally. And I finally get a bit more time to see my wife, which is really important!
‘It is very easy to get home at 7pm, eat and then spend the rest of the evening in the office. Then you go to bed, get up and do the whole thing all over again. Hopefully my life will be made easier by this support.
‘We are also getting a paid staff member. Not only will this help the volunteers operate more effectively, but it will help us have better reach with the motorcyclists we want to engage with. By having this extra support we should bring in more funds, which pays staff and that’s the start of a self-sustaining charity. We’ll then have the capacity to push the successes in Dorset to other parts of the country.
‘We tend to target biker events, as that’s when you can interact with the whole community. Being part of the ambulance service is so useful – this year, because our injury prevention strategy is working so well, DocBike has been sent out to other incidents that haven’t involved motorcycles but where help is needed. If we’re the nearest resource we are still ultimately an ambulance resource. So it’s been good that in Dorset the number of motorcycle accidents have been reduced – we‘re then available to help save the lives of other people.
‘If we can’t fix people after the accident, we need to get to them before they have their crash and see if we can prevent them having an accident. It works so much better – it not only saves lives, it saves demand on the ambulance and hospital services, prevents costly and inconvenient road closures and benefits everyone.’
To donate to DocBike:
docbike.org/dorset
Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance:
dsairambulance.org.uk
