A quad rider stranded in the Prince George backcountry with weak cell phone signal was able to get out a distress call pleading for help Monday night.
The rider was alone on a remote trail southeast of the city, about five kilometres off of 15 Mile Road. There are no homes or public roads in the area, only bushy terrain. He was close to the railway tracks running north-south, and close to Cale Creek.
"He was going down a steep hill, his tires slipped in a rut and he went over the handlebars. He sustained a broken leg," said Prince George RCMP spokesman Cpl. Craig Douglass.
Mounties assisted in the rescue once the distress call came in. The crash victim got his mom on the phone and she relayed the emergency to 911 dispatchers. It was about 8:50 p.m. Monday night.
Police stood by with BC Ambulance Paramedics on 15 Mile Road while the trained volunteers from the Buckhorn Volunteer Fire Department and the Area D Rescue crew (based at the Pineview Volunteer Fire Department) took their four-wheel-drive rescue vehicle into the off-road area where the rider was believed to be.
"We searched on foot and by vehicle, and he was able to get some limited cell phone coverage there, talking to his mom, but that was hit and miss," said Lyle Wood, chief of the rescue team. "It was dusk. Time was a factor. We knew if we didn't find him by dark, we would have to call in Search and Rescue."
A neighbour flagged them down and gave them guidance with some familiarity for the area. With visibility waning, they came to a ravine and spotted the crash victim and spilled quad at the bottom. Their vehicle could pull right up close to him.
The rescue team stabilized the youth's leg, obviously fractured just below the knee, "but he was in pretty good spirits," said Wood.
They placed him in the vehicle for the bumpy ride back out to the road where ambulance paramedics and hospital staff did the rest.
Douglass said alcohol was not a factor in the incident.
Backcountry users sometimes have things go wrong, said Wood, and that was to be expected. All the reason necessary, he stressed, to prepare for those distinct possibilities. He praised the quad rider for not only wearing a helmet on the trail ride, but having safety gear and other appropriate clothing for the activity. There was only one thing missing, Wood said.
"If you're going to go out there, at least go with somebody else. If he hadn't got that cell signal, it could have been much worse. You have to do any outdoor activities with at least one other person," he said.
It is a timely reminder, said the responders involved, now that the spring weather is taking hold and outdoors enthusiasts are enjoying the natural playgrounds around the region.
Area D Rescue/Pineview Volunteer Fire Department have responded to 54 calls for service so far this year, slightly behind last year's record-setting count of 142 files for the volunteer responder group.
