SUMMER SAFETY GUIDE
MAYDAY THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE
Be sure to be found with ACR By Jill Clendon February 6, 2014, dawned beautifully and we headed up to do a recce on an orienteering course we were setting for an upcoming event. The terrain was rough, with sinkholes in the area. These were marked on our map and we were being extremely cautious as we moved along. We had been placing marker tapes for over an hour, when I stepped forward to place one on a small bush. I thought I would drop perhaps a few centimetres, as often happens when travelling in rocky terrain, but I didn’t. I dropped five metres straight down into a cavern, tumbled a further four metres at approximately 160 degrees of angle and then dropped another metre-and-a-half into the bottom of the cavern. All I could think as I was falling was, ‘When is this going to stop?’ I hit the bottom, conscious but a bit stunned. I checked myself for injuries; nothing broken, but I could feel blood on my head and leg. I was carrying a
first aid kit, spare thermal top, hat, jacket, survival blanket, head torch and my ACR locator beacon. I yelled up for my friend but couldn’t initially hear her, so I reached for my beacon. Because I was not directly below the very small hole I had fallen through, I tried to reach as high as I could up the sloping rock to place the beacon in line of sight of the hole, not knowing if it would be received. By this stage, my friend (who did not have a beacon on her) had realised what had happened and called out that she was on the way for help. Once she contacted emergency services some time later, they had already picked up my beacon and help was on the way. After four hours, a cave rescue team member was lowered down to me, helped me put on a harness and assisted me to the top. The beacon enabled rescue teams to find me quickly and get me out. I was lucky. I only suffered light injuries:
severe bruising, cuts, and scrapes, and required stitches to my knee. Cold was the greatest threat, but I managed to avoid hypothermia with the help of my survival blanket, spare clothing and extra blankets thrown down by the first rescue personnel on scene. I was amazed that the beacon was picked up so rapidly, despite being out of direct line of sight of the opening and so far underground. What an incredible piece of equipment - I was so glad I had it.
Jill and rescuers, looking relieved
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Trailer Safety PRODUCT USED IN RESCUE