Selkirk nursing students assisted in a rollover last Thursday.
First-year nursing student Megan Mackay said she and five other students were driving to school when the accident happened.
“We were following a lady on the way to school and she was swerving all over the road, and then she rolled down the bank — one roll — and we all jumped out of the car and went down, and got on the phone with 911 and waited for them to come,” she explained.
Two more nursing students on their way to Selkirk stopped as well.
Castlegar RCMP received the call at approximately 8 a.m. and attended the accident on Columbia Avenue, just north of Minto Road, along with the Castlegar Fire Department and Emergency Health Services (EHS).
“It appears that the 27-year-old female driver fell asleep and went off road right, rolling the car into the ditch,” read a press release from the RCMP. “She was able to get out of the car on her own, and was unhurt.”
The release also said that neither speed or alcohol are considered factors, and thanked Mackay and her fellow students for stopping to assist.
Mackay said they tried to get the woman to stay seated while waiting for paramedics and checked her for a concussion.
“We just focused on concussions, if she might have hit her head, because we just learned about it,” she told the News. “We tried to get her to just stay seated, and relax and calm down until they got there to assess her.”
Once the paramedics arrived, Mackay and her fellow students continued onto Selkirk where they were able to share their real world experience with their classmates.
“It was a really interesting experience and for us I think it really taught us about our teamwork skills because we all just kind of collaborated instantly when it happened, which is weird because we never really had that experience before,” said Mackay, reflecting after the incident.
