SUNDRE – A young male who was one of two adolescents from the area in a GMC pickup that rolled over Friday was extricated by firefighters and airlifted by STARS to a Calgary hospital.
The Sundre Fire Department was dispatched to the scene of the single vehicle rollover west of Highway 760 near the former Bergen Store in the area of Range Road 54 and Township Road 320 in Mountain View County just after 8 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 1, said Sgt. Randy Poon, the Sundre RCMP detachment’s commander.
“It appears the driver was injured, assessed by EMS and transported via STARS to Calgary Foothills hospital,” Poon told the Albertan on Saturday, Dec. 2 when reached for comment.
The sergeant could not immediately confirm the nature or seriousness of the injuries or if speed might have been a factor, but said there was “no indication of alcohol or drugs” and that the cause of the rollover was still being investigated.
Fire Chief Ross Clews told the Albertan his department rolled out to the scene with the command unit as well as a rescue truck in a response that from start to finish took about an hour and a half.
The two occupants – a male and a female – were both “local to the area,” said Clews, adding when asked that they were adolescents in their late teens.
The male remained trapped in the pickup when responders arrived at the scene, he said.
“The vehicle was on its side and we had to remove the roof to bring the patient out safely,” he said, adding the other occupant had managed to self-extricate after the crash.
“The one patient got out of the vehicle and then was checked out by EMS,” he said.
“We had the ground ambulance there looking after the primary patient and then the secondary (patient) was taken by personal vehicle to the Sundre hospital.”
Paramedics arrived as firefighters were bringing the patient out of the vehicle and placing them onto a spine board, he said, adding the patient was at that point transferred into the care of EMS.
Firefighters then provided assistance for the STARS air ambulance to land safely and then helped the ambulance crew load up the male patient into the helicopter, said Clews, adding firefighters returned to hall shortly afterward once the scene was cleared.
