Exercise extends ‘rescuers’

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 6

Exercise extends ‘rescuers’

A training session involving St John Ambulance Brigade divisions and Red Cross rescue units in Woolston last evening took a more dramatic turn when a report of a serious accident was relayed to the group. A bus and a car had “collided” on Evans Pass Road and' both vehicles rolled down a hill, the car catching fire. Passengers from the bus had been “scatterd down the hillside." A: farmer, who had seen the accident, “rushed to the

scene on his tractor, unwittingly . running over one of the bus passengers.” The Sumner St John Ambulance and Brigade were called out after the “alarm” had been raised by a motorist passing the Sumner Fire Station. It was only when they arrived at the scene of the accident that the brigade and Red Cross members discovered that the alarm was In fact an elaborate exercise. Smoke bombs and sound effects ere provided by the New Zealand Army. The exercise was organ-

ised by the divisional superintendent of the Sumner St John Ambulance Brigade, Mr Paul O'Donnell. It was designed to test the ability of the division to coordinate a large and delicate rescue effort in its area, according to Mr O’Donnell. As the ~rescue services were still determining the injuries of the passengers from the bus and car another two cars were involved in an “accident” 500 metres up the pass road. Rescue services were taxed as their members worked hard to rescue vic-

tims under rugged conditions wheih were cold, dark, and steep. Logistical assistance was provided by Lancaster Motors, which provided the bus, and the SOS Breakdown Service, which helped with vehicles involved in the “accidents'.” * Both of the vehicles which ended at the bottom of the hill reached there by side roads, rather than being rolled from the top. Mr O’Donnell said the exercise might be repeated today—in daylight.