by Sam Hawcroft
East Riding Council has promised to review emergency access protocols after a 71-year-old woman lay injured on a bridleway in Burstwick for nearly three hours because crews were unable to unlock a gated entrance.
The rider fell from her horse just after noon on Thursday, November 13, a few hundred yards along the track from the Station Road entrance. The bridleway gate is secured with a padlock and key, and no one could initially be found to unlock it.
It is understood ambulance crews were at first reluctant to stretcher the woman the long distance over uneven terrain due to the nature of her injury. Firefighters and paramedics made their way on foot along the bridleway to assist.
A rider who was with the woman said this was not the first time access issues had delayed help and warned that something needed to change. She said the injured woman was becoming increasingly cold as she lay on the ground and that there should be a way to ensure a key can be quickly located in an emergency.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: “We received an emergency call at 12.14pm on Thursday to report a person who had fallen from a horse on a bridleway near Burstwick Drain. An ambulance and fire and rescue service colleagues were dispatched to the scene. One patient was conveyed to hospital.”
Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said: “We received a call at 1.45pm to support the Ambulance Service near Station Road in Burstwick. We sent a fire engine and because access was along a gated bridleway our firefighters made their way on foot to the injured person and got them safely to the ambulance.”
The woman was eventually carried on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance in Station Road shortly before 3pm.
East Riding Council, which owns the trail network, acknowledged that the padlocked gates had hampered the response.
A council spokesman said: “We are extremely sorry to hear that a member of the public has been injured on this rail trail and we wish them a full and speedy recovery. The trails are owned by the council and are public bridleways, which means they are not open to public vehicles.
“There have been persistent issues with vehicles illegally accessing the trails and causing serious damage to the land. Gates have been in place for several years to prevent that. Most of the gates are padlocked with key access, but we recognise this is not ideal and on this occasion has hampered emergency access.
“We are in the process of replacing keyed padlocks with numeric code locks along some sections of the trail, and the access code will be shared with emergency services so they can more easily gain access in the future if needed.
“We will also be reviewing our emergency contact protocol.”