Yesterday Lance Armstrong crashed cruising through a round about on stage 8 of the Tour de France at nearly 40 miles per hour. Round abouts, speed bumps, and intentional lane narrowing are types of traffic furniture that is common in Europe and increasingly prevalent in the United States for reducing motor vehicle speed and preventing collisions. You can see Armstrong go down at about the 31 second mark of this video. It was the second of three agonizing falls for the 7 time Tour de France champion during the stage.
Unfortunately for Lance Armstrong and other professional cyclists traffic furniture is a leading cause of crashes during professional road races. Although he may disagree with me traffic furniture is essential for collision reduction and improving motor vehicle passenger safety.
In this video I talk about the usefulness of round abouts and tips for EMS professionals to avoid intersection collisions while driving the ambulance and other response vehicles.
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Meanwhile, I am still cheering for Lance and the rest of Team Radio Shack. Best of luck to all of the riders during the final two weeks of the grueling Tour de France.
Are you watching the Tour de France? Keep your eye out for the Race Doctor and his conspicuous absence of any sort of PPE when treating road rash.
