Heroic act saves rider’s life

A heroic act from a group of mountain bikers at a park south of Palmerston North may have saved the life of another rider.

A man collapsed at the Arapuke Forest Park on Monday afternoon, but a group of riders nearby performed CPR on the man until a helicopter arrived to take him to hospital. The man is now recovering in hospital.

Manawatu¯ Mountain Bike Club member Russell Brebner, who is part of the club’s trails committee, arrived at the park when the rescue helicopter landed.

Brebner said the man had been riding the trails on his own when he collapsed, but, luckily, it was at a central point of the park with other people nearby.

‘‘This group of people, who were just mountain bikers, have come to his aid and effectively delivered CPR for at least 40 minutes...

‘‘That team had done an amazing job keeping him alive, keeping his blood circulating and doing the things that needed to be done.’’

He believed the good Samaritans were from Whanganui and New Plymouth, and he said they rotated through shifts of CPR.

‘‘They were just the general public. To jump in, they’re heroes in my book. What they did, they saved that man’s life.’’

One person rode down to the car park and brought the man’s wallet and phone back for when he went in the helicopter.

Brebner praised the emergency responders who helped, St John, the Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter and a fire crew from Linton.

The club’s chairman of the Arapuke trails committee, Pete Wells, said the club had erected safety signs around the park with information about what to do in an emergency.

He said mountain biking could be a risky sport, so riders using the Arapuke park were told in case of an emergency to call 111 and get to a certain point to wait for emergency services.

There are more than 30 kilometres of trails at the park.