Whilst enjoying a post climbing evening pint at the Wilton Arms Public House at circa 22:20, long serving team member Louise Jorgensen and former (experienced) team member Neil Ramsbottom heard a loud crash and witnessed a vehicle leaving the road (Scout Road, Horrocks Fold) and then rolling down the steep hillside below Scout Road, coming to a rest half-way down the slope.

Whilst Neil immediately ran up the hillside to the incident scene, team member Louise Jorgensen contacted Greater Manchester Police whilst Neil contacted NWAS (Manchester). They both suggested in their phonecalls the immediate callout of the team.

In the event, our Team Leader, at the request of the first responding Police and Ambulance crews, was contacted directly via Louise Jorgensen at circa 22:34 to respond to the incident. A full team pager call was made at 22:43, by which time some team members had already commenced a response.

In the meantime Neil Ramsbottom had commenced an immediate casualty assessment of the sole occupant of the car, a male driver who was trapped in the vehicle. Neil then assisted the responding NWAS (Manchester) RRV and Emergency Ambulance crews with accessing the site and transporting medical equipment to the site.

Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Resources then arrived and immediately joined in the rescue effort to extricate the trapped driver.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes was the first responding team member to arrive on scene at 22:56, at the same time as the responding NWAS HART resources and NWAS Sector Manager.

Garry’s arrival at the northen end of the growing number of emergency vehicles on scene was closely followed by the arrival of our Deputy Team Leader at 22:58 at the southern end of the emergency vehicle RVP.

Our BM1 and BM3 Land Rover Ambulances arrived on scene at 23:00, followed by our BM2 vehicle at 23:02.

By this stage, Neil Ramsbottom had now left the immediate casualty site with full casualty care now being provided by NWAS Emergency Ambulance staff, the NWAS HART crews, and GMFRS Trauma Technicians working in harmony.

The casualty was extricated from the car with suspected head and back injuries by GMFRS personnel and was placed on an NWAS HART specialist stretcher. Via a short simple rope haul system backed up by a combination of NWAS, GMFRS, and Bolton MRT personnel, the casualty was evacuated a short distance uphill to a track where the casualty, still in the specialist stretcher, was transferred to at Mountain Rescue stretcher.

Bolton Mountain Rescue personnel then stretcher evacuated the casualty a short distance back up the hillside, commencing at 23:22, to the waiting NWAS Emergency Ambulance, which shortly after departed for Royal Bolton Hospital.

A small party of team members then assisted GMFRS crews with the retrieval of their equipment still at the incident scene.

For the duration of the actual rescue, and the initial stages of the evacuation, full scene lighting was provided by the GMP Air Support Unit helicopter, India 99, hovering over the incident site.

Also for the full duration of this incident, a large section of Scout Road was closed to traffic in both directions.

With the completion of this incident a “hot debrief” was then conducted by GMFRS Bolton North Fire station Watch Commander, involving all the personnel present.

The overall conclusion from this incident was that its successful completion was due to the close integration and working of all the emergency services present as part of this multi-agency response.

Previous incidents and many liaison meetings meant that our Team Leader was on first-name terms with most of the responding officers from the other services, and the team’s capabilities were known and understood by both the Fire and Ambulance personnel who were involved in this rescue.

The team’s involvement in this incident was concluded at 00:30 back at our base locations.

The following resources were known to be involved in this incident (n.b. this may not be a conclusive list).

• Bolton MRT
  • 21 team callout list members and one former team member
  • 3 LandRover Mountain Rescue Ambulances
• NWAS (Manchester)
  • One RRV (solo-crewed)
  • One Emergency Ambulance
  • Three Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) vehicles
  • Eight HART team members
  • One Sector Manager
• GMFRS
  • Three pump appliances from Bolton Central and Bolton North Fire Stations
  • One aerial ladder platform appliance from Bolton Central Fire Station
  • Three incident officers
• Greater Manchester Police
  • Local divisional officers
  • CID staff
  • Traffic section officers
  • Air Support Unit helicopter India 99