Cyclist flown to Cairns Hospital with life-threatening head injuries

A teenager has been flown to hospital with potentially life-threatening head injuries after suffering a medical episode and coming off his bicycle on a mountain bike trail.

The Rescue 510 helicopter: Peter Carruthers

The tight-knit Cairns mountain biking community has been rattled after a youngster was flown to hospital on Sunday with life-threatening head injuries.

The teenage boy had been participating in a club race day with the Smithfield Mountain Bike Club when he suffered a serious crash on the trail.

“It has shocked everyone, we are a close group of people and we’re all just rallying around him right now and are hoping for the best,” club manager Rachael White said.

Emergency services were called to the World Trail near the JCU Smithfield campus around 10.40am on Sunday after the teenage boy fell from his bike and sustained significant injuries.

“We were called to the scene where a boy has come off his bicycle after a medical episode,” a Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said.

“He has received a significant head injury due to the fall and has been choppered out in the rescue helicopter.”

Ms White said while mountain bike riding had an element of a “risk” involved, the event had been organised with all “proper precautions in place” and “plenty of first aid staff in attendance”.

“I wasn’t his first-aider, however, those who assisted him immediately, stayed with him until the helicopter got there,” she said.

The teenager was flown to Cairns Hospital with potentially life-threatening head injuries, QAS said in a statement, and was in a serious condition.

The Smithfield mountain bike trail network is the oldest in the country and is enjoyed by casual riders and elite professionals from around the world who take to the world class but sometimes treacherous downhill tracks.

Originally published as Cyclist flown to Cairns Hospital with life-threatening head injuries