[T]he ten mountain rescue teams have made available their twenty seven 4×4 vehicles and over the past two days six teams have been deployed to incidents primarily in the central and eastern parts of the county.
MRTs are working closely with Cumbria Constabulary through its strategic incident command structure to deal with the ‘999’ calls coming in and also providing support to the ambulance service where it has been impossible to get their own vehicles to patients requiring urgent treatment or medication.
During the 27th there were just two incidents but this increased to seven on the 28th and seventeen deployments yesterday on the 1st March but many of these deployments were multi incident deployments so the actual workload for the teams has been significantly higher.
The teams are being tasked to rescue people in stranded vehicles, deliver essential medication to patients in remote areas, attend ‘999’ calls where the police, fire and rescue and ambulances cannot get to and patient transfers across and outside the county. There have also been the normal sledging incidents and callouts for incidents on the mountain.
Penrith MRT and Kirby Stephen MRT have been the busiest in the east of the county. Penrith dealt with eleven incidents yesterday including a patient with heart issues where the team had to dig through snowdrifts for the last ¼ mile to get there, the stranded train at Brampton, numerous stranded motorists and assistance to care patients requiring urgent medication.
The longest rescue has been 8 hours trying to reach a stranded foreign lorry driver already having spent 24 hrs in his vehicle. They were driven back by 3 meter high snow drifts. They finished their rescuing at 0400hrs this morning and will attempt to get to the still stranded lorry driver this morning. Penrith were assisted yesterday by Cockermouth and Patterdale MRTs. Kirby Stephen MRTare being assisted by Kendal and Duddon and Furness MRTs.
The attached photo was one of the early rescues by Patterdale MRT in the early hours of Wednesday morning where the passenger of a gritter lorry fell from the cab sustaining a serious injury to his leg. The gritting teams do a great job keeping us moving but as experienced, at great risk to themselves.
The teams would urge drivers to avoid venturing out into those areas affected by the snow as directed by the police, the council and highways authority. It is also important not to blindly follow their sat navs where main roads are closed as the back roads are in a worse condition. Drivers need to be aware that when they have to abandon their cars they create blockages for the emergency services and indeed the snow ploughs and gritters that are doing their best to keep the roads clear.
In addition to supporting the county on the roads there have been a number of mountain related incidents including sledging accidents so unless you know what you are doing, know the risks and your limits, have the right winter equipment and you are experienced using it we would strongly advise people not to venture on the high fells. Temperatures on the tops with wind chill will be minus 20 to minus 30 and at these temperatures exposed skin will be at risk of frostbite.