Penticton and District Search and Rescue was alerted to an injured biker in the Naramata area who used a phone application to identify her position on Saturday.
PENSAR rolled out 14 responders including their helicopter evacuation team (HETS) Saturday afternoon after being alerted that a 52 year old female biker had injured herself while bike riding in the Three Blind Mice Area of Naramata.
(read more on HETS: South Okanagan rescue group takes to the air)
At 3:19 p.m. PENSAR search manager Dale Jorgensen was alerted by the provincial emergency co-ordination centre who had received a request from Emergency health services to assist in locating and evacuating the subject from the off road location.
Responders were assisted by the injured biker who was able to identify her location using a rrail mapping tool called Trailforks. The use of this cell phone application reduced the time it took responders in identifying her position and allowed a ground team to set up a staging area on Sutherland Road. The HETS Team flew aboard a Eclipse Helicopter to the identified location where the subject was assessed and then long lined out to the Sutherland Road location and turned over to Emergency Health Services for transport to hospital.
”We can attribute this timely response today to all of the pre-planning and practicing for this type of event we have done with local EHS, Penticton Fire Dept., PACA (Penticton& Area Cycling Association) and the use of biking mobile application – Trailforks,” said Jorgensen. “Planning, training and working collaboratively benefits everyone and today was a test to show it is working.”
