Episode 7 Close Calls: On Camera

A close call, a moment of danger when life can hang in the balance.

I could die here. This is really serious.

A split-second where the outcome could go either way.

Right. Call 999 now.

The difference between disaster and survival.

You could see it on the faces of the crew how life-threatening this was.

Why would you need to swim?

Apparently they're supposed to still be on a boat.

These are the people that have been there and lived to tell the tale.

I thought she had died.

It's a day they'll never forget.

The day they had a close call.

Today on Close Calls, a mountain biker takes a jump,

but fails to take off and smashes headfirst into the ground.

You all right? Leave him on his side! Leave him on his side!

And a grandmother misreads a traffic signal and steps out into the road.

She doesn't see the motorbike coming towards her.

Also today, horror on a birthday skiing trip in the Alps

when an avalanche strikes.

I just saw the snow craze and break up and become liquid.

Surrey Hills National Park.

A mountain biker out with his mates in the forest

has an horrendous accident attempting a jump.

He hits the ground hard, face first.

He's unconscious, bleeding and struggling to breathe.

His panicked friends rush to his side.

Talk to me. Talk to me.

They're joined by an off-duty police officer who's witnessed the smash.

What's your name? Fella, what's your name?

I realised straightaway that this is a serious situation.

Fella, talk to me.

He'll need all his first aid training -

the rider may have severe head injuries.

Right. Call 999 now.

Originally from the North East of England,

46-year-old Andy Hill now lives and works in London.

I never thought I'd be a big city man, I like the countryside,

but the diversity and the different things going on,

it's a fantastic, eclectic city.

But Andy also appreciates every opportunity to get out of

the big smoke.

I enjoy cycling, walking, I really appreciate the outdoors.

It was through one of his other hobbies that Andy met his girlfriend

Abby at a literary festival.

I saw him sit down and I thought, "He's a handsome man."

Abby means everything to me. Abby is the most beautiful woman ever.

He's got a brilliant sense of humour.

Gives a lot of time to other people, which is a really nice quality.

But it's a day out with the boys for Andy

that nearly ends in tragedy for the couple.

It's a pleasant Saturday morning in October and Andy is looking

forward to a day's mountain biking in the Surrey Hills -

an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

He's joining a group of friends from work.

I used to mountain bike a lot when I was young,

and I hadn't been mountain biking for about 15 years.

I know he's fit and I know he's capable and he's a grown man,

but obviously was still concerned because he hadn't been for a while.

I was like, "Yep, of course. Of course I'll always be careful."

Although a keen road cyclist,

Andy doesn't own a mountain bike, so borrows a pal's for the day.

I went with Ian and two of his friends,

two keen mountain bikers and two novices, me being one.

They were looking out for us and taking us to different jumps,

but nothing too crazy.

It doesn't take Andy long to feel back in the saddle.

Riding was brilliant, cycling along, going down some of these hills.

It's a real buzz when you go over a jump.

You get in the air for a brief time and you think,

"Wow! This is life. This is living."

Also enjoying the thrill of a day out on two wheels today

is local IT worker Tim Rowsell.

He's with a friend and they're recording

the action on chest cameras.

Tim is a special constable for the police in his spare time.

I've always been the kind of person that I don't like to walk on

by things, I always stop and get involved

and try and help out where I can.

Tim also set up the Surrey Search and Rescue charity,

a specialist team of volunteers which helps the emergency services

find missing adults and children.

Surrey Search and Rescue has now grown from the initial ten members

and we're now approaching 70.

Really just kind of being there when

the people of Surrey need us the most.

Tim and Andy don't know each other,

but are about to tackle the same mountain bike trail.

It's an area Tim knows well,

and whilst his friend adjusts his bike, Tim rides on ahead.

The camera on his chest records as he goes over a difficult jump.

Then he stops to wait for his friend.

If you haven't done it before, it's a definite challenging jump

that you have to make sure you make it over the lip.

I was expecting my friend Dan to come down the trail next.

Instead, these four riders came down.

It's Andy's group.

The bikers exchange a few words.

Go for it. You have enough speed there.

Last of his group to take the jump is Andy.

He hits it at an angle and doesn't get off the ground,

planting the bike's front wheel.

He somersaults straight over the handlebars, landing face down.

You all right?

Andy's friends rush to help, but it's Tim who takes charge.

Fella, talk to me. No, no, leave him on his side.

Leave him on his side. Right. Call 999 now.

999, mate? Yeah.

Right, fella, talk to me.

Talk to me.

Andy was unconscious, his eyes rolling in his head

and I realised straightaway that this is a serious situation.

Give him some time to get his breath. Fella, talk to me.

I mean, his face literally hit the ground and then scraped along

the ground for a good metre or two.

Fella, what's your name? What's your name? Talk to me.

ANDY MUMBLES What's your name?

There could become quite dire consequences from that cos

his entire body weight going down through his neck into his head.

What's your name? Talk to me.

Talk to me. HE MUMBLES

All right. HE MUMBLES

All right, talk to me. We're going to get help, all right?

While one of Andy's shocked friends phones 999,

Tim supports his head to keep his neck straight

and his airway open.

Andy is unconscious and breathing heavily.

I was concerned about spinal injuries,

I was concerned about head injuries,

I was concerned about brain injuries,

I was concerned about his breathing.

There was bleeding coming out of his mouth as well.

You have to talk to me, all right? What's your name?

What's your name?

'He wasn't well at all.

'He needed some expert medical attention'

and some expert medical kit up there as well.

It can't come quick enough. Andy just isn't responding.

Right. Come here a second.

As part of Surrey Search and Rescue, Tim has a special app on his phone

that gives the grid reference of their position.

Go through the list, find G, for grid.

'Because we are basically in the middle of nowhere,'

'I was able to get kind of'

10 metres square area,

the ambulance would be able to figure out where we were.

Right. Give it to the 999 coordinators, all right?

Fella, what's your name?

And stop anybody else coming down here, all right?

Andy's still not responding.

Tim keeps trying to get through to him.

What's your name?

You had a bit of a fall, but you're going to be all right, OK?

'We didn't know what injures he may have.'

I need to try and get him conscious as soon as possible.

Talk to me. Come on. Wake up.

They say quite often that unconscious people

can hear what is going on around them.

'I was basically asking him a question over and over again.'

OK. Come on. Open your eyes.

Open your eyes for me. OK? Open your eyes.

So that in the background, he'd be kind of thinking,

"I must answer. I must answer. I must answer."

Open your eyes.

Tim keeps trying, and after three minutes...

Andy stirs.

What's your name? Fella, come on.

Talk to me.

HE MUMBLES: Andrew.

Andrew. All right, Andrew, my name's Tim.

You're going to be all right, OK?

Andy's beginning to come round.

'Getting the first reaction from Andy was a really good sign.'

He was getting better and start being able to tell us what

he could feel was wrong with him.

All right. Stay still. You've got to stay still, all right?

You've had a bit of fall there.

His eyes are now open, but Andy's very disorientated.

Stay still. No, no, stay still.

He struggles to get up. Stay laying down.

All right? Lay onto your back. Use this as a pillow.

Yeah, I'm fine.

'It could be a very tough call to either try and force someone down,'

where you could cause more injuries, then let them get up.

Andy sits himself up.

One of his pals is at his side. Tim fills in the gaps for him.

Fella, we need to get you an ambulance, all right?

You've been unconscious for quite a while there. Yeah? Yeah.

It's a good five minutes you've been unconscious,

so we need to get you sorted out. Have you got any pain anywhere?

Erm...

A bit of a bad head. Yeah? Whereabouts? Just...

What happened?

Down here. Just did the jump too slowly

and you went straight over the handlebar.

Andy can't remember the fall, but his helmet shows the impact.

Look, it's gone straight through.

'It definitely shows that wearing a helmet can literally save your life.'

Was I out for a while, then?

Yeah, a good five minutes. Yeah? You were out.

How? Coming down here? Yeah.

'Even though he was back with us and talking to us,'

he was being very repetitive.

So, what happened?

You went over the handlebars.

Right, remember the word aardvark for us, all right? Mm-hm.

Yeah, I'm going to ask you in a few minutes, yeah?

'There were still definite signs that the head injury had been sustained.'

It was a big worry for me.

What just happened? You went over the bars.

Do you remember what word I gave you a couple of seconds ago?

Aardvark. Cool. OK.

Thanks to the grid reference given by Tim,

the ambulance crew reach the group quickly.

Andy. Andy. Right. Can you keep nice and still?

Keep your head nice and still, OK?

Andy's condition appears to be improving, but because

he was unconscious for so long, the medics must take every precaution

in case he has a brain injury.

Andy's memory of these moments is fragmented.

When I came round, I was really disorientated, confused.

Moments ago, I had been enjoying it

and I cycled through the hills, and then kind of woken up.

You're still a bit confused, aren't you? Yeah, slightly.

'I'm not generally the centre of attention,'

so having everybody kind of looking at me and focusing on me

was a bit strange, and I started to worry then, how bad is it?

We're just going to lay you down, OK? Yeah.

The ambulance crew fit Andy with a neck collar and put him on

a special mattress to protect his spine.

Andy is taken to hospital in nearby Guildford.

30 minutes later, he calls girlfriend Abby.

I could tell from his voice that something was wrong.

Got it out of him that he was in hospital.

I got into my car and drove to the hospital.

He was more concerned that I was going to be OK driving there

than he was for his condition, so that's typical of him.

While Abby's on her way,

Andy is sent for x-rays and a CT scan of his head.

Amazingly, helped by the protection of his helmet,

he's come out relatively unscathed.

I was really lucky to escape with a few cuts and bruises to my face

and I broke one of the little bones in my right ring finger.

Even though he was unconscious, nothing major had happened to him

physically with his spine or his brain, he was so fortunate.

I was so relieved to see him.

We just gave each other a hug and I tried not to hug him too hard.

Andy still can't remember the moments immediately before

and after his crash, but thanks to Tim's camera, he can watch them.

Fella, talk to me. No, no, leave him on his side.

Leave him on his side, leave him on his side.

'That is... It's a scary, scary, scary moment.'

It's really difficult to watch.

Just seeing myself completely unable to respond, react, to get up.

I am extremely lucky to be alive.

Andy is thankful to rescuer Tim.

'I spoke to Tim afterwards, expressed my thanks.'

I definitely, I owe him more than a pint.

I'm obviously very pleased Andy is alive, he's well,

he's basically uninjured so, yeah, very good ending to this story.

Coming up, a skier's helmet camera captures the moment

he is swept down the mountain by an avalanche.

Harlow, Essex.

A commuter records his journey to work using cameras on

the front and rear of his scooter.

He approaches a junction.

While the right-lane filter lights are red,

the main road light is green for go.

But a grandmother about to cross the road misreads the signals

and steps out.

The impact is unavoidable.

She crashes to the ground.

I was so much in shock that it affected me right to my core.

74-year-old Madeline from Cheshunt in Hertfordshire

is always on the go.

I don't have time to sit down.

I fall asleep if I sit down.

I love gardening. I've done gardening for other people.

Decorating.

I get pleasure in doing things for other people.

Before she retired, Madeline worked in many different roles in retail,

manufacturing and hygiene.

I just had amazing jobs. I loved my work.

Madeline's always been devoted

to her two children, John and Michelle,

and four grandchildren.

Two are in Italy, so obviously, I don't see them as much.

We FaceTime each other, so that's cool.

Then we have Maddie, who is named after me, and Joshua -

he's got the most cheeky little grin and chuckle.

Maddie and Joshua are daughter Michelle's children,

with her partner, Jay.

Sadly, less than a year ago,

the family suffered a great loss when Michelle passed away.

She...

Just an amazing person.

She helped so many other people and she'd walk into a room

and her smile would light up everyone.

She was just a very loving, caring person.

Life isn't right sometimes, is it?

It doesn't make sense.

It's something you can't get over,

you don't get over, but you've got to try and cope.

Madeline's way of coping is to help her daughter's partner, Jay,

look after the children.

I see Maddie and Joshua every day.

I make sure I sort her school clothes,

make sure she's got them, she just has to put them on.

It's all the little things.

All the appointments to the doctors,

dentist and take them to parties and try to help Jay sort stuff out.

She's become the linchpin of the family,

they couldn't do without her.

It's a gloomy, rainy August morning with little sign of summer when

the busy grandmother finishes her domestic chores

and gets ready to go out on an errand.

The plan that day was to take my daughter's car in to be

serviced cos we've decided we needed to keep it for the little ones,

and a friend of ours was going to take it in for us,

but I decided to go as well.

Madeline and her friend head for the garage in the nearby town of

Harlow, 25 minutes away.

At about the same time, flour mill worker Peter is leaving his

Harlow flat on the way to work by scooter.

He's an experienced rush-hour commuter

and always videos his journeys,

with one camera facing front and the other, back.

It's about ten miles from where I live to where I work.

I don't always take the same route.

Just to avoid complacency, normally I switch every month.

And this particular route is the shortest journey.

Madeline and her friend are now on foot, having just dropped

the car off at the garage.

We were just coming out of there and we thought we'd go for a coffee,

and wait. And I was going to cross the road, cos it looked clear.

My friend said, "No, it's safer to go to the traffic lights."

The pair are aiming for the supermarket cafe on

the other side of the road.

They approach the traffic lights.

There are no pedestrian signals, just traffic control.

But there is a sign on the tarmac

instructing pedestrians to look right.

But Madeline doesn't notice it.

When you go towards the road,

the path sloped down a little bit and there was a hedge on the right.

I couldn't see clearly.

Saw the traffic lights were red, cars stopped.

But the red traffic light she sees controls cars in the filter lane

waiting to turn right.

The lane on the left for the main flow of traffic

is controlled by another light, and that's on green.

I just wanted to get across the road, like you do.

Peter is approaching the junction.

I wasn't in a rush that day.

I was just taking it easy, as I normally do.

The speed limit is 40mph, but he's doing 30,

conscious of the wet tarmac.

Madeline's view is blocked by her umbrella,

she's totally unaware of the approaching bike.

She steps out into the road.

Her friend behind her.

Peter brakes, but he can't avoid the impact.

Looking back in horror, he sees Madeline face down on the tarmac.

I was able to react as quickly as I could and just...

managed to glance her, rather than hitting her full-on.

I was so much in shock that it affected me right to my core.

Madeline's friend tries to revive her

as other drivers call for an ambulance.

Peter turns his scooter around and heads back to the crossing.

She was moving, I knew she wasn't dead.

But...because she was so small, I was just picturing in my head

that maybe she'd got broken bones or anything like that.

Madeline is unconscious.

I don't remember anything at all,

which I'm glad, because I think I would have been in a lot of pain.

The 74-year-old lies in the road,

her confused friend standing over her.

Two passers-by stop to help.

By chance, one of the helpers is an off-duty nurse.

Apparently, I was trying to get up.

Yeah, I'm one of these people if I fall over, "I'm fine," you know.

The emergency services arrive quickly.

The first responder showed up within a couple of minutes.

I don't think it had any impact on how I felt, cos I was so...

..so much in shock.

Moments later, an ambulance crew arrive

and take Madeline to hospital.

The next thing she remembers is waking up in a ward with

the concerned faces of son-in-law Jay and her friend

looking down at her.

I looked up and I thought, "What are they doing there?"

These two faces looking at me.

And then obviously, everywhere aches cos I was all bruised.

Madeline is black and blue all over,

with nasty deep cuts on her head and arm.

But thankfully, she has no broken bones.

She remains in hospital for six days and is fitted with a neck brace.

My first thought was for Maddie because,

"Oh, my gosh! She's just lost her mummy.

"How is she going to react with me not being there,

"not being at home?"

So, son-in-law Jay brings the children to see her.

She held back a little bit,

but once I started talking to her, she was fine.

We had to tell her I fell down the stairs and she says,

"OK, Nanny, what you do is you go down on your bottom,

"like I did when I was tiny," she's only four -

"and I'll hold your hand."

While she's in hospital,

Madeline gets a chance to reflect on the accident.

I think it was a warning to slow down.

I do... I was doing, you know...

Since I've lost Michelle, I've been doing this, doing that.

John, my son, said, "Well, I hope they keep you in for a week, Mum."

I went, "That's not nice."

He said, "Well, you need to rest."

When she recovers,

Madeline apologises to Peter for walking out in front of him

and insists on paying for the damage to his scooter.

Well, she's just such a wonderful person.

I've kept in touch and, yeah,

I think she's a really good person to know.

They're both very grateful he's such a careful driver.

I was so pleased it was Peter, to be quite honest,

and not a car or someone that was speeding,

because I wouldn't be here now.

Great to see so many people willing to help out in a crisis.

Now, they say it's good to expect the unexpected,

and that applies even when we're on holiday.

Here's a tale about a lucky escape for some pals on the slopes.

Val d'Isere in the French Alps.

Wearing helmet cameras, a group of friends enjoy some off-piste skiing

on the region's tallest mountain,

but it's about to go badly wrong.

A large crack suddenly appears on the slope.

I saw the slab open up

and I knew immediately that there was going to be an avalanche.

The powerful snow surge engulfs one of the skiers,

violently throwing him down the mountain.

I saw Alex go down and I knew that he was in trouble,

because if you're buried, especially in that snow, you've only got

a few seconds before you're going to start running out of breath.

Landscape architect Alex lives in Gloucestershire, and when

he's not working, he grabs every chance he can to hit the slopes.

Basically, I garden and I ski.

The two things that I do with my... any time I have.

It's exhilarating being in the mountains,

the area is fabulous, the scenery is amazing,

you're exercising all the time and you just feel really good.

The week of his 60th birthday, Alex heads to Val d'Isere in

the French Alps to celebrate with a large group of family and friends,

including 25-year-old Teddy.

Alex is a friend of my father's.

I've known him since I was very young.

He's just always been there, skiing with my dad.

We've skied together with our families for many, many years.

It's a few days into their trip and six of the more advanced skiers,

including Alex and Teddy, have an adventurous day planned.

Where I can, I prefer to go off-piste where there is

a degree of danger, but it's usually very well controlled.

There are reports of avalanches in the mountains,

but they're very, very rare.

But, to be on the safe side, the group hire a guide to take them down

the Grande Motte mountain, the highest in the area.

It's an absolutely gorgeous mountain and you can ski down the front

of it on the piste, but we had decided to go off the back.

It was the day before my 60th birthday, we were going to have

a party that evening and we were all in very, very good spirits.

Alex and Teddy are both wearing helmet cameras

to record their descent.

Well, for my birthday, I had been given the helmet camera,

so we're having a great time videoing everybody.

Alex can be seen skiing past Teddy.

Then they start down a stretch of snow lying on top of a glacier.

Alex goes third behind another member of the group - Henry.

His camera shows the guide at the front leading the way.

Conditions were great.

There was nothing untoward about the slope.

But disaster's about to strike.

In front of Alex, Henry turns sharply.

A deep crack appears in the snow.

Behind Alex, Teddy senses the danger.

I saw the slab open up

and I knew immediately that there was going to be an avalanche.

And I shouted, "Avalanche!"

I didn't see the crack as the slab broke away.

I just saw the snow craze and break up and become sort of liquid.

Everything was floating and moving like it was a boiling pan of water.

Alex loses his footing and his camera captures the moment

the avalanche swallows him up.

Alex is swept down the mountain at great speed.

Pummelled by the heavy weight of the sliding snow,

he struggles to keep himself from going under.

The power of the snow was just unbelievable.

There was nothing I could do about it.

I was just tumbling, falling, somersaulting backwards,

forwards, upside-down.

I was thinking, "Stay alive, stay alive, stay alive!"

Close behind, Teddy just manages to avoid the avalanche

by skiing to the side, out of its path.

When I saw Alex go down I knew that he was in trouble, because if you're

buried, especially in that snow, you've only got

a few seconds before you're going to start running out of breath.

Alex is thrown around by the snow for nearly 30 seconds,

but then the avalanche slows and he comes to a stop.

He lands face up, but his legs are buried.

The snow continues moving past him like lava from a volcano.

I was panting with adrenaline, I think.

Alex frees himself as the avalanche travels on more than a mile

to the bottom of the mountain, leaving him in its wake.

Alex went down, I think, 500m down the hill, he went a long way.

If he had done one more tumble and ended up face down with a foot

of snow on his back, he wouldn't have been able to pull his body up.

He would have...perhaps suffocated if we hadn't found him in time.

Luckily, everyone was OK.

Nothing more than bruises and dented pride, really.

We just clapped each other on the back and said,

"Let's go get a beer."

With his birthday present camera also surviving its dramatic

first outing, Alex will always be able to recall what happened

on the day he turned 60.

Well, the first half of it, anyway.

Alex had a fantastic 60th birthday that night.

We had a great party that evening,

especially with being all exhilarated from that experience,

and I don't remember much about it, actually.

Some truly gripping stories today, I think you'll agree.

But that's all from Close Calls. See you next time.