Helicopter ER: Wakefield biker thanks Yorkshire Air Ambulance for saving his life after high-speed crash

Experienced biker Robin Brown was riding with a friend towards the Tan Hill Inn, Swaledale, in poor visibility last January when he hit a gulley and flew off his bike. A passing driver stopped and took the 62-year-old to the pub where the emergency services were called. Despite poor flying conditions, Yorkshire Air Ambulance managed to reach the remote Dales spot – 1,732 ft above sea level.

Robin was airlifted to the James Cook major trauma centre, Middlesbrough, in just 16 minutes – a journey that would have taken an hour and 20 minutes by road ambulance. The lorry driver from Eastmoor, Wakefield, suffered a punctured lung and a broken ankle in the accident. Robin spent four months recovering from his injuries and is still having physiotherapy, but said he is very lucky to have survived a high-speed crash in such a remote location.

The horror crash features next episode of Helicopter ER – the reality TV series featuring the work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance – on Tuesday December 20.

Robin said: “We hadn’t done the route before and I just misread the road and hit the bank. I flew up and off the bike and was saved because I was wearing all the right equipment. I am also so very grateful to the air ambulance for getting to me in what were horrible conditions and then flying me to hospital so quickly. I can’t thank them enough.”

Robin's accident features in Tuesday's episode of Helicopter ER, the award-winning Really channel programme that follows the life-saving work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance. The programme also features a teenager who suffered multiple injuries after a tyre blow-out at 70mph, a climber who fell 30ft from a rock face at Stanage Edge in the Peak District and a DIY job that went badly wrong.

Serving a population of approximately five million people across Yorkshire’s three million acres, YAA operates two air ambulances from airbases at The Nostell Priory Estate near Wakefield and RAF Topcliffe near Thirsk, plus two Rapid Response Vehicles. The rapid response air emergency service needs to raise £19,000 every day to keep its two helicopters flying and donations are open on its website.