Busy day in blizzard conditions
- Call out for year: 15
- Date: 4/04/12
- Time: 6:00 am
- Grid ref: Across our operational area
- Type of incident: Non mountain (Ambulance) Other(5)
- Team members involved: 7
- Time taken: 11 hours
- Total man hours: 77 hours
Incident report
Following the heavy snowfall overnight and throughout Wednesday morning, Buxton Mountain Rescue team members used two of their vehicles to assist the emergency services with a number of incidents throughout the day.
The first call was to help the ambulance service gain access to a multiple vehicle collision at Peak Forest. On returning to our Dove Holes base we came across 3 motorists stranded in snow drifts up to 5 feet deep between Peak Dale and Peak Forest.
A further call to assist the ambulance service at Buxton to gain access to a young child believed to have fallen downstairs. One of the team vehicles transported the child together with a paramedic to Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport for treatment.
Further calls were received to check for stranded vehicles and drivers on the A515 road between Brierlow Bar and Parsley Hay. Also to assist a lorry driver stranded in a vehicle at the Harpur Hill Industrial Estate.
Neil Carruthers, Buxton Team Leader said: “We were working in extraordinary road conditions, experiencing blizzards with visibility at times of only 10 metres, which caught a number of drivers out. If we are able to do so, we are very happy to assist our community in difficult circumstances in any meaningful way using our specialist knowledge and equipment”.