Titchmarsh/stone point incident three days ago.

ianc1200

ianc1200

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As it's not been mentioned here, we were in the carpark talking to the marina security man Toddy Friday evening when a coastguard vehicle & two ambulances arrived. Toddy left us to see what was going on, and driving up Coles Lane another ambulance cames down and turning onto the Kirby Road three more ambulances plus a support vehicle, all with flashing blue lights, were also heading for the marina. A friend who stayed says eventually there were 10 - 12 ambulances/fire engines/coastguard vehicles. Apparantly a lady had got stuck in the mud at Stone point and the Harwich inshore RNLI boat was bringing her in. This is the second time - last about two years ago - where we've had a huge amount of resources to a relatively small event. Can anybody educate me why so many ambulances are needed, especially if it's only one person involved? If there was a person with a heart attack, or people caught in a traffic collision perhaps 10 miles away, surely resouces need to be better managed? It's quite likely I'm misunderstanding & there's a very good reason for such deployment, but I'd like to know/understand.

(edited to say Friday not Thursday)
 
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I don’t know....but....this stuck in the mud business is extremely serious and used to result in slowly drowning...a truly horrible demise. So, there has been some developments, such as high powered water jets to remove the mud around the victim faster than it can coagulate. Perhaps because these instances are so rare (thankfully) many people attended for training purposes ?
 
We had a similar incident at Brightlingsea some years ago, a not-so-young person ended up in the mud short of the sailing club ramp (not one the regular club members who are fairly used to this sort of thing and can drag their boats through the mud). To the casual observer (including myself) the response was extraordinary. Clearly you may need a team of people experienced in this type of rescue and medical help standing by, but how much? 2 coastguard vehicles with the occupants just standing around watching, multiple fire engines and ambulances. Somebody must know better than us.
 
I suppose it depends on the situation......if someone is stuck at low tide....and they are with their family....a lot of people could need restraining from attempting a rescue and also need medical attention from witnessing something horrific
 
It's standard practice for the CG to task two CRTs to a mud job, as it needs quite a few personnel.
Can't speak for the fire brigade or ambulance response.

From what I remember (my short-term memory is shocking these days), the complication was that one of the local CRTs was already tasked to manage the helicopter landing site at Ipswich hospital for Rescue 363, which was medevaccing a casualty from a ship at sea, so a team from further afield had to be tasked to back up Walton, with a long ETA.


Which was probably why they tasked Trumpton too.
 
ianc1200 said:
As it's not been mentioned here, we were in the carpark talking to the marina security man Toddy Friday evening when a coastguard vehicle & two ambulances arrived. Toddy left us to see what was going on, and driving up Coles Lane another ambulance cames down and turning onto the Kirby Road three more ambulances plus a support vehicle, all with flashing blue lights, were also heading for the marina. A friend who stayed says eventually there were 10 - 12 ambulances/fire engines/coastguard vehicles. Apparantly a lady had got stuck in the mud at Stone point and the Harwich inshore RNLI boat was bringing her in. This is the second time - last about two years ago - where we've had a huge amount of resources to a relatively small event. Can anybody educate me why so many ambulances are needed, especially if it's only one person involved? If there was a person with a heart attack, or people caught in a traffic collision perhaps 10 miles away, surely resouces need to be better managed? It's quite likely I'm misunderstanding & there's a very good reason for such deployment, but I'd like to know/understand.

(edited to say Friday not Thursday)
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Ian, I will explain when we meet next but I can assure you that the situation you describe sounds typical and reasonable for a mud rescue
 
If all was quiet, in general, perhaps the various emergency services attended as a form of training exercise, to observe and learn. i don't suppose they get that many mud rescues so experience must be lacking. If I fall in the mud I want all that plus a couple of helicopters. One might as well make a day of it. Never go out on the mud without three legs, in other words take a spade/oar etc with you.
 
and make sure you have at least one way of calling for help from the Coastguard. If you are stuck in the mud anywhere near low water, time will be critical.
 
Bouba said:
I suppose it depends on the situation......if someone is stuck at low tide....and they are with their family....a lot of people could need restraining from attempting a rescue and also need medical attention from witnessing something horrific
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It will indeed depend on the situation, and the authorities will not have known the exact situation until they arrived and assessed the scene against the clock. Calling for additional resources after arrival might well have been too late.

Better to have resources they might need, and that would otherwise have been at base on standby, in attendance and then release them once they are sure they don't need them, I would have thought.

I certainly wouldn't criticise the authorities for their response to a situation they couldn't fully know, and especially when I don't fully know even after the fact.
 
A couple of years ago a chap had to the misfortune to go over the edge of the quay near the Tidemill in Woodbridge. He was in an electric wheelchair and went off sideways landing in the mud, luckily the tide was out. An Ambulance, 3 fire engines, a coastguard vehicle, another fire service vehicle towing a RIB on a trailer and an Ambulance Service Incident Control vehicle were deployed. It took a large number of firemen quite a long time to get him and his wheelchair back on the quay. I guess a couple of the vehicles were not needed but Control would not necessarily have known exactly what was needed at the outset.
If it had been high tide the outcome would likely not been good, as it was I believe he just broke his arm.
 
ianc1200 said:
Can anybody educate me why so many ambulances are needed, especially if it's only one person involved? If there was a person with a heart attack, or people caught in a traffic collision perhaps 10 miles away, surely resouces need to be better managed?
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In brief because they don’t know exactly what they are going to find and need to get all the specialist resources and equipment there in case it is needed - the HART guys will have dry suits, life jackets etc but that’s no use at all road accident. Single crewed vehicles not uncommon if you need expertise rather than muscle. Complex multiagency jobs need management and coordination not just patient care so now you need a senior officer. Once it’s there it’s easy to stand it down or reallocate to another job.

All U.K. ambulance services allocate calls on a priority basis - no Cat 1 call will have been left waiting for a response because lots of crew were at the beach, but some low priority calls may have been - those are the sort of calls where presented with the reality of how long an ambulance will take people remember that they could ask a neighbour, get a taxi etc… just like we used to.
 
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