Some heros. H&S madness.

[Inky Pete]

He'd been in the water 14 minutes before the first paramedic arrived, another 19 minutes until the second ambulance crew arrived and located him, and then a further 28 minutes until the fire brigade arrived.

14+19+28 = 61 minutes.

.....but he'd have been just as dead after 33 minutes, or 14 minutes. In fact, he was almost certainly dead before the driver got off the phone to 999.

 

[Johnmelad502]

[

Since neither of us were there - neither do you.

I'm sure that if there had been any signs of life or movement from the casualty then the fire brigade would have done everything they could to mount a rescue.

Armchair second guessing is easy, ordering people into danger and carrying the responsibility for those decisions isn't.

So if you see someone laying motionless you can be 100% certain that they are dead?

Don't fire engines carry ladders over 15 feet anyore? If not is it in case the poor fire fighter might fall off and hurt his precious self?

 

[Inky Pete]

That slope sure does look steep.

The article doesn't say that the photo is of the same ditch the guy drowned in.

It certainly gives that impression, but in fact it's just a picture of a ditch copyrighted by Alamy - a supplier of stock images and photos - with the words "The area of Lincolnshire where Mr Malton died is covered with ditches"

If the journalist couldn't even be bothered to get a picture of actual scene, what makes you think the rest of the story is any better researched?

 

[Inky Pete]

So if you see someone laying motionless you can be 100% certain that they are dead?

After an hour or so with their face immersed in water?

Yep, pretty sure.

 

[Norcon]

A ditch is a ditch. I have steeper ones down my back field.
The person who hit him was the coward IMO who did nothing to save his life except dial up useless emergency services.
Pathetic.

but was told to stay in his car and not try to find the victim.

Only an idiot would give out this advice and a bigger idiot would listen to it (or coward)
FFS!

 

[Deleted member 105431]

A ditch is a ditch. I have steeper ones down my back field.
The person who hit him was the coward IMO who did nothing to save his life except dial up useless emergency services.
Pathetic.

but was told to stay in his car and not try to find the victim.

Only an idiot would give out this advice and a bigger idiot would listen to it (or coward)
FFS!

I'd agree. Emergency services my arse. What do we pay these ppl pensions, sick pay and all other benefits for if they let us down when we need them most? They should all be very ashamed!

 

[dextrous]

What do we pay these ppl pensions, sick pay and all other benefits for if they let us down when we need them most? They should all be very ashamed!

I'd be proud to be paying for someone having time off if they had been injured whilst saving somone else's life. Bit like I'm proud to pay for members of the armed services who get injured in the line of duty, so that I get to go about my business in relative safety and liberty. Think it's something to do with my contributions towards national security - in particular that we, as a nation, do our damnest to keep each other safe, secure and alive, regardless of some of the dangers it entails and at a reasonable cost.

Of course, some people on here have argued that in this instance "some of the dangers" necessitated an exclusion from unnecessary dangers, but in financial terms, I again draw your attention to the number of paid personnel watching a floating corpse. Was this number of manhours necessary, and would it not have been better spent elsewhere? I know this sounds callous, but no more callous than the utilitarian decision not to attempt to send someone down to the victim earlier. Thus, using the same logic, I state my concern regarding a "reasonable cost" - in short, who else within striking distance (an hour travelling covers a wide area) could have been protected with greater efficacy by the same people standing around "drinking tea"? And was this a useful expenditure of our resources, when we are advised of medical cutbacks for example?

 

[namsag]

Human body is a strange and complex machine ,66 minutes is regarded as the longest time a person spent under water and dead only to be resuscitated . This guy`s family willl never know if he would have been one of those exceptions because no one tried

 

[ajstoneservices]

Crowland is in the Fens.
We have Drains, Dyke's and ditch's. The banks of these tend to be steep and often left over grown. They be can steeply cut too having an almost sheer face, I have gone arse over tit trying to get down to fish on more than one occasion.

Roads often run alongside these drains, dyke's and ditch's leaving no room to walk safely along them they don't do footpaths or street lighting in the Fens very well. The roads are national speed limit too so being on the verge in the dark is no place to be. I don't know if the driver had a torch with him, I carry one but it would be of little use out in the fen when it's dark here, you often cant see a hand in front of your face. My guess is he was told to stay with his vehicle for fear that he would end up being hit too. That doesn't make him a coward.

It doesn't help that a photo is shown of a ditch with good access most around here are not like that and cars that have left the road are only found when someone takes the time to follow tracks leaving the road.

The fire service for the most part in our area is made up of retained fireman. I'm not sure that is the case in Crowland but I'd be surprised if it wasn't. It maybe that they had to wait for a better equipped crew from either Spalding or Peterborough to attend.


Edit I said Dykes

 

[Norcon]

My guess is he was told to stay with his vehicle for fear that he would end up being hit too. That doesn't make him a coward.

It would make him exactly that! A COWARD! IMO

A person that his vehicle hit was lying dying, probably caused by his careless driving.
But we don't know for certain that he stayed in his vehicle do we?
What we do know for certain is that he made no attempt to physically clamour down to help his victim who was lying face down in a few inches of water.

Many hit and runs take place. My guess is that he was a hairs breadth from running and didn't give a damn about his victim but decided instead to call the useless emergency services.

 

[wotan]

To be told to stay in his vehicle, in my opinion was not very a humanitarian request by the controller.
He should have been told..to put the hazard warning lights on, and take a careful look, only if he felt up to doing so.
Where human life is concerned, minutes can make the difference between
life and death.
This lack of action and its sad outcome, is something the driver will have to live with, I would not like that on my conscience.

 

[snico]

A person that his vehicle hit was lying dying, probably caused by his careless driving.
But we don't know for certain that he stayed in his vehicle do we?
What we do know for certain is that he made no attempt to physically clamour down to help his victim who was lying face down in a few inches of water.

How do you know it was careless driving, the accident happened at 11pm at night on a country lane. Have you ever driven down a country lane at night?

The man could haver been in total shock and not able to leave his vehicle anyway, you do not know.

How would he know where to even start looking for the victim, what was the distance from the collision to where he came to a stop? lots of factors. To call the driver a coward is pathetic

 

[Inky Pete]

The casualty was hit by the offside of the car. So either he was in the middle of the road, or the car was on the wrong side of the road (but there's no mention of any charges being brought against the driver for this), or the road is an extremely narrow single track road at that point.

If the fire brigade couldn't get their appliance right to the scene and use it to tie off to - maybe that explains why they couldn't attempt a rope rescue?

Without actually seeing the scene, and the conditions on the night of the accident, we're all just speculating.

 

[sooey]

If the fire brigade couldn't get their appliance right to the scene and use it to tie off to - maybe that explains why they couldn't attempt a rope rescue?

Oh ffs, how many were there to hold the rope? You make it sound like the north face of the Eiger, or nanga parbat.

 

[namsag]

Bet if it was a young bird who had slid down there and was stranded there would have been everyone of them down there including the boss