Incident 56/2012

At 21.49hrs late this evening, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was contacted directly by a GMP Divisional Police Sergeant, requesting the team’s specialist services for a body recovery operation at Cox Green Quarry, Egerton, Bolton.

Earlier the body of a male had been discovered by youths who had noticed it in undergrowth at the bottom of a vertical sixty foot drop, from their position at the top of the quarry.

Police were notified and due to the location of the body, in dense undergrowth and amidst rock boulders, required the team to evacuate the body.

A full team pager call out was initiated at 22.04hrs, with most members initially meeting at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.

Team members assemble at the Cox Green Road RVPOut Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE and Team member Steve Fletcher arrived quickly at the Cox Green Road (North) RVP to meet GMP Police Officers at 22.28hrs, going straight to the location of the body to ascertain how best to undertake the recovery operation.

All five of our team vehicles responded, as specialist lighting equipment was required from each of the vehicles (our six PELI Scene Lighting Units) to fully illuminate the scene for safe working and given the circumstances of the recovery operation.

Most responding team members were on scene by 23.10hrs, with the difficult recovery operation commencing shortly thereafter.

The recovery operation begins from the base of the quarryBy midnight we were in a position to commence the evacuation of the body from the quarry, after completing the body recovery from a very awkward location in difficult circumstances.

By 00.40hrs in the early morning of Saturday 11th August, the stretcher evacuation of the man’s body had been completed back to the roadhead RVP at Cox Green Road, Egerton, jointly by Bolton MRT team members and the two on scene GMP Police Officers.

Here Police and the team awaited the 01.10hrs arrival of the Undertakers, with the body subsequently being taken to Royal Bolton Hospital.

Team members carry the male’s body out of the quarry and back to the roadFor the eighteen Bolton MRT team members present this was a harrowing and difficult body recovery operation given the circumstances of this particular incident, the location of the body and the fact that all took place at night time in high temperatures.

By 02.00hrs all team members were back at their home locations.

Police officers await the arrival of the Undertaker’s ambulance.The full condolences of the team are extended to the family friends and colleagues of the deceased male involved in this tragic operation.