PCCT’s and C&O’s Bicycle Emergency Response Team (BERT)

Taking a fall on the CCT or the Canal Path will still be unpleasant, but it looks like help will be faster to arrive. The Glen Echo Fire Department’s new bicycle emergency response squad
was introduced to the trail on May 8.

The Glen Echo department hopes the Bicycle Emergency Response Team, to
be known as BERT, will provide medical support on the Capital Crescent
Trail in Bethesda and the C&O Canal towpath. Quickly getting to some
areas of the trails can be difficult, and the bikes will give emergency
staff members better access, said Jane Callen, a member of the patrol
and vice president of the Glen Echo Fire Department’s board of
directors, the Conduit Road Fire Board.

Bike patrol members will monitor the two pathways within an approximate
border of Western Avenue and Bradley Boulevard, said the department’s
volunteer chief, Herbert Leusch. The department plans to send the two
bikers on patrol in tandem on the Capital Crescent Trail and the towpath
during summer weekends to respond to emergency medical situations.

“There is not a weekend that goes by in the summer that a call doesn’t
come in from the Capital Crescent Trail,” Leusch said.