Saturday 1 August 2009

Appalling, disgraceful, even unbelievable - but not unexpected.

This is such a tragic story of how all three emergency services refused to climb down a 15ft bank and rescue a man from 18in of water, that I'm not going to write anything more about it; lest I belittle the seriousness of it.

When is this kind of shit going to end?
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3 comments:

  1. MuppetMan3 August 2009 at 12:54

    Lousy reporting you mean? I don't know - soon I hope...

    Although I don't have the facts either, there is simply no bloody way that emergency crews couldn't be arsed to go into a 15 foot drain to rescue this chap - despite the protestations of the Daily Wail there would have been good reasons behind this.

    Let's review the facts for a moment...

    Sonia Lawrence failed to find the casualty. Who was lying 15 foot down in an unlight drain, at night. Whilst I find it surprising, it's not incredible - it's just damned unfortunate. However, you can bet Sonia Lawrence wasn't arsing about in the cab checking her make up and doing her nails - she would have been desperately looking for the casualty - albeit it on the wrong side of the road.

    33 minutes after the alarm was raised, the second crew arrive. A paramedic attempts a rescue, but then assesses it as unsafe. Do you seriously think that's because he doesn't want to get his trousers wet? No - the medic would have been desperate to get to the casualty - but the medic is also trained to look upon the scene dispassionately. "Do I risk my life for that is essentially a body retrieval, or do we face facts, and get a properly kitted out team in here who can do this safely? This chap has after all been floating face down in water for the past half hour, and is therefore extremely likely long since dead".

    Half an hour later (alarm + 1 hour) the Fire Service turn up - and set up for a rescue before being ordered to stand down by their commanding officer. Why do you suppose the CO made that decision? He just likes looking at bodies in ditches? Not finished his tea yet? Or maybe it's because the scene was dangerous, and he did not think that retrieving a body merited endangering his own men...

    To portray the emergency services staff present as people who couldn't be bothered to do the job is ridiculous. If rescue was viable, the commanders would be under IMMENSE pressure from their crews. But, in the this case, the commanders thought it wasn't.

    So who are we going to trust? A band of skilled rescuers who were actually there and do this for a living, or the Daily Wail hack - who was doubtless tucked up in his nice warm bed at the time in question.

    The Daily Wail, on more issues than just this one, should be ashamed of themselves - and everyone else should consider reading a better paper...

    Martin.

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  2. Hibbo4 August 2009 at 03:21

    That's certain fair comment Martin, and it's one of the reasons why I don't like using Daily Heil stories.

    I sincerely hope that there's a lot more to this story and your account of if is closer to the truth; BUT. But we have to realise just how far this health & safety / arse-covering nonsense has gone.

    Whilst you and me might struggle to comprehend that members of the emergency services might sometimes act in this manner, we have to remember that to the latest generation of recruits this nonsense is standard. The can-do attitude is alien to some people.

    I have the utmost respect for the emergency services, especially the ambulance crews, so I do hope this story has been dailymailerised along way from the truth.

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  3. MuppetMan4 August 2009 at 13:18

    Thanks Hibbo...

    I used to be a member of St. John Ambulance / The Red Cross (different times) - and although we were pretty cocky, the true emergency services made us look like, well, amateurs lol...

    Believe me, if a rescue was viable, you'd need wild horses to hold them back - particularly the fire service who are particularly adept to thinking on their feet..

    Martin

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