Went for a spin round QECP yesterday and the best trail in the place has been closed and had barriers built across it!

Sign says something about public safety but its not exactly in a busy part of the park and IMO is no more unsafe than any of the other trails there.

Anyone know why? Any chance of it being re-instated?

Cool story about broken backs, ATVs, air ambulance and cheeky trails

I’ll find it, on the KVMB forum and post it in a bit

Can you not go around the barriers, or has it been totally trashed? (I’m aware of the crash)

Thing is, it was a none authorised trail. It’s been there for donkeys years in one form or another, and I guess the park always turned a blind eye to it as it was right out the back of the park in an area of low footfall.
When that poor bloke binned it i suppose they decided that they finally needed to put it out if use.
There’s been done great work by the Collective in the park & there are other trails that are pretty fine so it’s not all doom & gloom.
I’m sure that given time something may reappear but probably best to leave alone and let it be forgotten about for now…

I was that rider and the crash was on Friday 26th Sept. I clipped something on landing which spat me over the bars so quickly that I didn’t even have time to get my hands out in front. Consequently I landed head first (the impact point was just above the helmet visor) and then folded forward.
Injuries were – three cracked vertebrae (T1,T2 – top of the spine, and T8 lower down), cracked sternum (horizontally and clean through) and the 4 top ribs that attached to the sternum and connect to the vertebrae).
I managed to call 999 thanks to a good phone signal (I’d Just switched to T-mobile who are part of the EE network. I was with Three before and never could get a signal anywhere in QE Park) and gave them grid co-ordinates. About half an hour later another rider came down the trail. He then went back to the centre and directed the paramedic up to me. He stayed for quite a while and then, when I was being moved, rode my bike down to hand over to the centre staff for safe keeping.
BTW….If any one happens to know who this rider is then please let him know that I’m extremely grateful for his help and I owe him a beer or three..!
Coast Guard were scrambled to perform an airlift but unfortunately they were unable to get the chopper into a stable hover. In the end they brought in a specialist 6×6 Polaris vehicle with some sort of hydraulic cradle device. I was placed in the choppers casualty basket in a semi sitting position and then loaded into the buggy. They then drove me down to the centre and from there it was an ambulance ride to Southampton General (due to the spinal injuries Southampton was considered the better option).
I’m now home now and in a neck collar. All things being equal I should make a (relatively) full recovery.
I’ve ridden that particular route dozens of times and have had the odd minor off before. This was just bad luck and I hope the centre don’t close it because of this. At the end of the day there’s an inherent risk in riding which I accept fully and I certainly don’t hold the Park responsible for what happened.
I prefer riding the trails on my own and on that day I had a day off so decided to head up knowing that the Park would be quiet. I was lucky on a number of counts –
I had my phone with me (I always carry it and keep it in an Otterbox waterproof box)
I had a decent phone signal
Another rider came along and helped
The other thing I should add is that the emergency services were excellent. From the moment that Carl (the initial paramedic on scene who stayed with me right through to A&E at Southampton) arrived and from then on with the arrival of the additional paramedics, the Coast Guard and the HART Team’s 6 wheeler crew – I felt that I was in safe hands.
A heartfelt thanks to all of them…!

Fraid nor Marky, they’ve done a pretty good job of some solid barriers right across the trail in a couple of places. I rode down to the 1st fire rode crossing and there were 3 barriers on the way, didnt go any further than that.

Be interested to read the story if you can find it MOrk.

Hopefully be re-opened some time as it is a kick ass trail, its not like there are any stoopid drops or jumps or anything, cant see its more unsafe than a thousand other trails across the UK.

And the semi official reason (thru Rups) for the closure Here

Hi all,
For those of you who don’t already know, there was a serious accident on Bermy, the unofficial trail from the top of the park down to Buriton, used as Stage 2 of the Day & Night enduro.Apparenly a rider on his own had a big crash, suffered serious injuries and needed to be airlifted out, and (again apparenlty) it took about 2 hours to get him out. After this the park have got spooked and want to ‘properly’ close the trail, involving taking out built features and literally covering the whole length of it with brush and hawthorn. I don’t know when they are planning to do this, or even if they will get around to it at all, but if you are riding this trail please watch out, and if it has been blocked please leave it that way. They have however said they will clear it for next year’s Day & Night race if we want to use it again.
If anyone knows the rider in question, we hope he’s OK and recovering as well as can be expected.
Ride safe….
rups

Thanks MOrk, sounds like a nasty one…….

Although still seems a bit OTT to close the trail because of a single incident. If we are saying that MTB is only safe when there is easy access for paramedics to get someone out then that would very much minimise the trails in use, including the marked ones at QECP….

Knowing QECP like the back of my hand, the ‘approved’ trails are all fairly close to a fire road, which I think is one of the requirements that the trailbuilding guys have to meet sadly.

I get it though, I’ve been riding the cheeky trails at QE for almost two decades, including bermie.

I know they’re working on a solution though 🙂

I was there yesterday helping out with some kids coaching not far from bermy. A couple of riders passing by mentioned this closure. I think that given the great work undertaken by the collective in agreement with QECP, it’s best to respect this closure and just enjoy the remaining trails.

Real shame for the reaction to this riders accident (heal quickly fella)

I enjoyed that bit of trail, it had a real established feel and was a great little extra.

Hi Guy,
Bit of a shame this has all come about but the park officially knows about the trail now so if they didn’t do some thing about this and some has another accident they could be in real shit.

In the last 3 years the number of MTB trails has probably doubled so not all bad, trails will come and go but hopefully we are always improving, extending and increasing the trail network.

An important part of that is keeping the park happy but also they need to do there bit too. For about 6 months or longer we have been asking them to put up the Blue trail signs but the have been to busy, yet the have time to constructed 5+ fences. I’m not impressed, PUT UP THE F@ING BLUE TRAIL SIGNS!!!!!!! 👿 👿

Anyway please don’t ride the closed trail and stay safe out there 🙂

It’ll return, it is too good to disappear forever.

Cheers to the collective, the transformation at qecp has been remarkable. Long may the plans continue, looking forward to the proposed new sections

A moment of remembrance [video]http://youtu.be/2qETPOvbqBw[/video]