Firefighters from Brighton and Hove hope to help save lives by encouraging motorcyclists to carry vital personal information in the lining of their helmet.
The scheme involves bikers placing a green dot on the right-hand side of their visor or helmet to show that they have the information on a card in their helmet.
The information includes their name, postcode, date of birth, medical history and any medication that they may be on.
The card is called a “crash” card with crash standing for
- caution
- road
- accident
- serious
- help
The firefighters deal with more motorbike accidents in the summer months and hope that the scheme will help to reduce the number of deaths.
Crews from Roedean Fire Station have already canvassed bikers about the scheme in Madeira Drive.
They spoke to several in the motorcycle parking area there with colleagues form the East Sussex Fire and Rescue community fire and safety team from Hove.
John Loveridge, the station manager at Roedean, said: “Most of them, if not all, had never heard of this scheme.
“Several valuable contacts were made, including the organisers of Brightona, which is a large charitable motorcycle event.
“They are keen to add this on to their website.
Passionate
“The other contact made was a shop owner who runs a local business in The Lanes and he took a quantity of the leaflets to hand out to his customers.
“Both of these contacts were passionate about passing on this message.
“Another issue discussed was why the motorcycle fraternity in the UK will not wear or are reluctant to wear high-visibility clothing.
“This issue was talked about at length as this is a requirement to ride a motorcycle through most European countries such as France.”
Brightona Charity Riders are holding an event called Heartbeat at Brighton Marina on Sunday (17 July) when they will be raising money for the Sussex Heart Charity.
Neil Hopkins, the communications manager for the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP), said: “I’m delighted that the green dot crash card scheme is resonating with the motorcycling community.
“I hope that this, along with the SSRP’s Stay A Hero campaign, will drive down injuries this year.”
The Stay A Hero video is proving popular on Youtube, with more than 110,000 views, and can be seen by clicking here.
