WinterRoadConditions

Today with the wintry conditions persisting, all four of our Team Land Rovers were out and about in the team area, with a total of ten team members aboard.

At 14.38hrs we were contacted both via the SARCALL platform system and pager by Lancashire Constabulary, for assistance at an incident involving a fatal collapse in the Darwen area.

Photo courtesy of Carl Silver ©Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE answered the call, and in liaison with Lancashire Constabulary, established that a famer had suffered a fatal collapse at his home address, and the Police required the teams assistance to transport his body from his farm due to snow and ice causing access difficulties for the responding Police vehicles and the on route Undertakers Ambulance.

A limited team response was made by the members already in the teams area aboard all four Team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances.

At 15.18hrs our first team vehicle, BM3, arrived at the Whitehall Road, Darwen, RVP where we met with one of three responding Police Officers.

At this stage the NWAS (Lancashire) Emergency Ambulance which had responded, had departed.

The remaining three team vehicles quickly arrived, and our Team Leader walked up the snowbound farm access track to further liaise with the two Police Officers at the farm.

Also on scene was the farmers wife, and members of his family, including his son.

Photo courtesy Carl Silver ©With the arrival of the Undertakers Ambulance at the Whitehall road RVP, our BM4 vehicle went upto the farm whilst our BM3 vehicle transported the two undertakers to the farm.

In a joint operation with Police Officers, the undertakers and team members, the 69 years old farmers body was respectfully taken from the farm, and placed on one of our mountain rescue stretchers, which was then transported back to the RVP in our BM4 vehicle.

As this incident was concluding at 16.30hrs, we then received another Call Out (Incident 47) and we departed for an emergency response drive to the Rivington area.

The team wishes to extend its sincere condolences to the family of the farmer who fatally collapsed.

The team members involved would also like to express their thanks to the farmers son, who under such tragic circumstances, still kindly relayed Police Officers and our Team Leader back from the farm in his vehicle, and to the understanding of the farmers close immediate family who were present on scene, regards our intrusion into their home at such a tragic time.

At 01.56hrs, the team was paged by NWAS (Lancashire) EOC Broughton, regarding an Emergency Ambulance unable to access a casualty address in Darwen due to snow, with a requirement for the team to stretcher evacuate the casualty to the Ambulance.

With team members already at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ consisting of those stood down from Incident 43 and those on standby to assist our members involved in Incident 42, which was still on going, an immediate response was made by our Land Rovers BM2 and BM4, with ten team members on board.

En route in conditions of drifting snow, all were stood down at 02.22hrs when NWAS (Lancashire) EOC Broughton paged the team to say that the casualty had now been accessed.

At 23.54hrs the team was paged by NWAs (Manchester) EOC Parkway to respond to an incident in Darwen, where an Emergency Ambulance en route to a casualty was stuck in the snow and icy road conditions prevailing.

Our Deputy Team Leader Geoff Seddon in his 4×4 was redirected from the previous incident, as was our BM4 Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance, which had been at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ on standby for possible help with Incident 42. (Team members Chairman Craig Lamb and Phil Crook)

Arriving on scene at 00.25hrs on Saturday 23rd March, our BM4 in terrible wintry conditions, were joined by Geoff Seddon who arrived at 00.35hrs.

Thankfully another Emergency Ambulance had managed to get to the casualty, and relatively quickly our members on scene managed to get the NWAS Ambulance free, leaving the scene at 00.45hrs.