Red Deer 1913 — 2013 Create Celebrate Commemorate
ARE WE PREPARED FOR DISASTER? RAYS ZAP Canadians advised to prepare against JAYS tornadoes despite lower risk than U.S. STORY ON PAGE A6
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CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2013
DEADLY DINNER
Mother’s grief spills out LASHES OUT AS MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING TODDLER FACES COURT
Photo courtesy KATHI ISSLER/Bentley Fire Department
Bentley firefighters work alongside Lacombe Fire Department and Parks Alberta to locate and retrieve a boater who had become separated from his capsized sailboat and spent over an hour in the water.
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
Boater rescued from Gull Lake MAN SPENDS 90 MINUTES IN FRIGID WATERS AFTER SAILBOAT CAPSIZES BY LAURA TESTER ADVOCATE STAFF Rescuers saved a Sylvan Lake man after his sailboat capsized and he spent 90 minutes in the chilly waters of Gull Lake on Tuesday afternoon. The Bentley Fire Department received an emergency call at about 12:30 p.m. from a bystander who had seen the boat capsize on the lake. Bentley, about 45 kms northwest of Red Deer, is located just southwest of the lake. Deputy fire chief Ian McLaren said the bystander thought the person was in the water. He told the fire department that the man had capsized on the southeast side of the lake, near the Summer Village of Gull Lake. The Bentley fire department called on the City of Lacombe fire department immediately, as well as conservation officers from the campground, so they could bring their boats. Eight volunteer firefighters from
Bentley attended. Ed Van Delden, fire chief for the City of Lacombe, said that they were called to help out since they have a Zodiac boat. “There was seven of us that went out, but only two of us went out in the boat,” Van Delden said this afternoon. “Apparently, the person had been in the water for some time.” An Alberta Parks boat crew was also called out and an ambulance responded to the scene. “By the time we received the call and got out there, it (the boat) was a good half mile out or more out on the water,” said McLaren. The Alberta Parks boat and the Lacombe fire department boat were both launched from Aspen Beach Provincial Park. The eyewitness was over at the composting site, so he used his boat as well. All three boats made a concerted effort to track the man down. “We found the (sail) boat initially
and then they did a search pattern from the boat and were able to locate the person in the water,” said McLaren. The bystander’s boat had a platform so it was easier to get the man onto that boat, said McLaren. The 56-year-old man was wearing a life-jacket. He told rescuers that he estimated he had been in the water for about 90 minutes. The man was rescued about 2 p.m. “After we got him in, we started warming him up,” said McLaren. “He was fairly hypothermic by the time we got to him.” A temperature gauge reported the lake being at 15.5 C. The temperature is warmer than normal for this time of year, said McLaren. An ambulance transferred the man to Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. McLaren said he didn’t know why the sailboat capsized. ltester@reddeeradvocate.com
EDMONTON — It was a celebratory dinner, a night out for an Edmonton family because their toddler had finally overcome his fear of the potty. Two-year-old Geo Mounsef proudly got his pick from a Potty Prize Pail at home on Sunday afternoon, then went with his parents and baby brother to eat on an outside patio at Ric’s Grill restaurant on the southwest side of the city. “We didn’t realize that decision would be the beginning of the end,” his mother, Sage Morin, wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to the child. She described how little Geo had impressed a waitress with his perfect manners just before a blue SUV plowed onto the patio, pinning the boy against a concrete wall. Patrons and paramedics tried to help the child, but he later died in hospital. His father and one-year-old brother were injured in the crash. Morin, wearing slippers with a foot wrapped in bandages, attended court Tuesday with her husband and other relatives to see the driver charged in the case.
‘We didn’t realize that decision would be the beginning of the end.’
Please see TODDLER on Page A2
STARS prepares to welcome ‘new bird’ BY MYLES FISH ADVOCATE STAFF There remains one major holdup, but the stars have very nearly all aligned to get a brand new “big red bird” in the skies above Alberta. A faster, more flexible helicopter being added to the STARS air ambulance fleet was showcased Tuesday at the Red Deer Regional Airport. The shiny new AW139 copter, once receiving full certification from Transport Canada, will be based out of Edmonton and will be able to reach Red Deer in emergencies 20 per cent faster — equal to seven to eight minutes — than its older BK117 counterparts currently making up the entire STARS fleet. For Red Deer’s Brenda Schultz, the unveiling was exciting. Twenty months ago she fell 15 feet from a deck in Alder Flats, suffering injuries to her spine and head; a STARS helicopter came to her and transported her to an Edmonton hospital. “When you have an injury to your spinal cord, there’s swelling, and any swelling will make things much much worse . . . The longer it would have taken to get me, the injuries would have been much more severe to my spinal cord . . . Thank goodness they were there, because we need to get
PLEASE RECYCLE
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
STARS flight medic Angela Mazzolini talks with Seth Weir of Red Deer aboard STARS new AW139 helicopter at the Red Deer Regional Airport Tuesday. there fast with an injury like this,” said Schultz. Schultz, who gets around in a wheelchair now due to her injuries, fundraised for STARS before her injury, and now said she likes doing so even more.
WEATHER
INDEX
Cloudiness. High 18, low 7.
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B3 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A6,A7 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D5 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B8
FORECAST ON A2
berta raised over $26.5 million. In Red Deer, the Vision Critical Capital Campaign headed by Jack and Joan Donald brought in over $1.6 million during the 2003-06 fundraising period. Joan Donald, who spent six years serving on the STARS board of directors, said the new helicopters will be a great asset to the province. “STARS was missing out on a lot of missions, because (the BK117 helicopters) can’t fly in bad weather. “The other thing was that they could only carry one patient at a time,” she explained. A key element in the new helicopters — the second is set to be added to the Calgary STARS base this summer — is an ice-detection system and heaters in the rotor blades and windscreen, which will allow the helicopters to head out on missions in inclement weather. The new version, at 16.67 metres, also is 3.67 metres longer than the existing BK117s, with space to transport two patients comfortably in a space that is essentially a “flying intensive care unit.” “In the BK117s we can carry two patients, but it’s really cramped and we have to ditch a person or two (of medical personnel) in order to fit people in,” explained STARS president and CEO Andrea Robertson.
She was one of the many dedicated local donors at the unveiling without whom the new machines’ arrival in Wild Rose Country would have been impossible. The donor-funded campaign to purchase two AW139 helicopters for Al-
Please see STARS on Page A2
ALBERTA
LOCAL
EDMONTON’S MAYOR STEPS DOWN
CAREER-ORIENTED LEARNING STARTS
The mayor who stickhandled drawnout negotiations to bring a new hockey arena to the Alberta capital says he won’t seek a fourth term in this fall’s municipal elections. A3
A Red Deer Catholic research project is designed to give students career-oriented learning. C1