Whilst responding to an emergency via Whitefield yesterday (17/01/2016), a liveried Bolton MRT vehicle with its emergency warning equipment activated was hit in the windshield by a ball of ice.
The team’s volunteers were responding to the second of three snow-related calls in the region that afternoon, and in this particular incident the call was to the report of a 50 year old female who had sustained a back injury whilst sledging in Radcliffe.
The ball of ice was thrown by a youth in the vicinity of Higher Lane/A665, Whitefield at around 3pm. The youth was possibly egged on by others in their group.
By sheer good grace, no damage was sustained to the vehicle. The view through the windshield was obscured but was quickly cleared. However, the youth who threw the ball of ice not only endangered the volunteer team members in the vehicle, but other road users and pedestrians as well.
Team spokesman Steve Fletcher said,
“the stupid actions of the youth briefly hindered our ability to reach the injured woman, as well as placing our volunteers and other road users in unnecessary danger.
“If the windshield had been damaged then the vehicle would have been taken off the road.”
“Perhaps the youth who threw the ball of ice would consider whether they would like it if we were delayed helping one of their injured friends or family, because the actions of one idiot?”
“If the vehicle wasn’t responding to an emergency then I’m sure the driver would’ve stopped and given them a well-deserved ticking off. Perhaps they thought we were ‘easy pickings’.”
At the conclusion of the incident in Radcliffe, the team was called to another snow-related incident in Kearsley.
The Bolton MRT is staffed entirely by volunteers and all funds are raised through donations.
Further information on the team’s work is available at www.boltonmrt.org.uk, via Facebook and twitter.
An earlier revision of this article contained a reference to a word that some of our readers may have found offensive. The original choice of word has divided opinion with some people saying we were very restrained and with others taking offence to the word given its historical medical connection. Various dictionaries have two definitions of the word, defining both a medical condition and, frankly, a generally “stupid person”. With that in mind this article has been amended. We certainly did not intend any offence and apologise if this has happened.
