An RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) Cormorant helicopter from 19 Wing in Comox rescued two people who were injured in a vehicle accident near Toba Inlet on Friday, January 4.
The patients had been riding in a pickup truck when it lost traction on a snow-covered logging road and began sliding down a hill. Moments before the pickup went over a steep embankment, four occupants leapt from the truck. Two of the occupants sustained injuries.
Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria received a call for assistance from Emergency Health Services after poor weather and low clouds prevented an air ambulance from responding to the scene.
“There were already first responders on scene and they had provided us an exact location where they were,” said Captain Luc Coates, aircraft commander. “They had also cleared a landing site for us at a wide part of the road, making for a quick and efficient operation.”
Once on the ground, Search and Rescue technicians (SAR Techs) met up with first responders from a company doing work in the area.
“The patients were stable throughout and the medics had done a good job of keeping them warm and getting them ready for transport,” said Master Corporal Justin Cervantes, SAR Tech.
Donald McInnes, executive vice-chairman of Alterra Power Corporation, said the occupants of the truck were employees of a subcontractor that is doing maintenance on the company’s 235-megawatt Toba Montrose run-of-river hydro facility. “There were no fuel spills or anything,” said McInnes. “The worst injury was two cracked ribs.”
The two patients are fine now and healing, McInnes added, and the roads are in better shape. “It was a great test of our safety procedures,” he said. “The Canadian Forces guys said our people on the ground did an exemplary job with our mobile ambulance responding to the situation, packaging the people up that may have had far more severe injuries than they did, so they could be easily airlifted from the valley and taken to the hospital.”
The Cormorant was able to fly over the low clouds and deteriorating weather, arriving in Comox at noon, where the patients were transferred to an ambulance for transport to hospital.
