Incident 28/2016 – Injured husband and wife in fall at base of Rivington Pike, prompting two Helimed helicopter response

Some of the photos in this article are credited to John Collins aboard Helimed75. You can follow John on Twitter.

A husband and wife couple (from Widnes) out walking this wintry and very cold afternoon, both slipped in muddy conditions at the base of the moorland landmark of Rivington Pike, prompting a 999 call at circa 14.38hrs.

NWAS (Greater Manchester) EOC Parkway in view of the information given, immediately despatched two Helimed helicopters via the NWAS (Lancashire) EOC Broughton Airdesk, and at 14.42hrs paged the team for assistance.

Again as with the previous incident, team Call out Contact Steve Fletcher co –ordinated our response, with members just returning home from the previous incident.

The RVP was given by Steve Fletcher as near the ‘New Toilet Block,’ (now actually derelict) at the edge of the Rivington Terraced Gardens.

At 14.55hrs the first of two responding Helimeds (H72) landed virtually next to the two casualties, followed at 15.00hrs by the second responding Helimed (H75)

Three passing off duty Police Officers (see listing below) out walking in the area, then assisted the two Helimed crews in treating the injured husband and wife.

At 15.02hrs team member Mark Scott was our first responding member on scene, arriving at the casualty site at 15.07hrs, with the first of our three responding Land Rovers arriving on scene at 15.09hrs.

The woman involved had sustained a knee injury and was airlifted to Royal Blackburn Hospital in Helimed 72, which departed at 15.36hrs.

The injured man with a fractured lower leg, was mountain rescue stretcher evacuated by the team to our nearby Land Rovers, being placed in to our Bolton Mobile 1 vehicle at 15.54hrs, which then transferred the casualty after travelling along the moorland edge track of Georges Lane, in to a responding NWAS Ambulance at Ye Jolly Crofters Public House, at Chorley Old Road, Horwich, at circa 16.10hrs.

The following resources were involved in this incident;

• North West Air Ambulance; Helimed 72 (Yellow) and Helimed 75 (Red) , six crew, both aircraft from City Airport Manchester (Barton)
• NWAS (Lancashire); Broughton EOC Airdesk despatcher.
• NWAS (Greater Manchester); Parkway EOC, One Emergency Ambulance with two crew from Wigan Ambulance Station.
• Lancashire Constabulary; two off duty Officers – Will Leah and Charlie Lox, who were out walking in the company of the below;
• British Transport Police; off duty Officer Jackie Godden.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Three Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, call signs Bolton Mobiles 1,3 and 4. Twelve team operational members on scene, one further team member stood down responding, and one team member co-ordinating our response (but not involved in responding to this incident)