Crimeline: Rescues and drunken antics
Highly technical Remarkables rescue - Climber falls 15m
A local climber who fell about 15m on very steep, rocky terrain near the summit of The Remarkables on Sunday had a painful three-hour wait with serious injuries while rescuers negotiated highly technical, vertical rock faces to get to him.
Wakatipu Alpine Cliff Rescue Team co-ordinator Russ Tilsley says the climber had been descending into a 100m-long rock gully when he fell down sheer rocky faces, fracturing his pelvis and breaking his hand about 30m below Single Cone Summit.
Tilsley’s team was called in with Heliworks to assist after an Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter, that had flown from Dunedin with one cliff rescuer, needed help, he says. Another two from the local cliff specialist team were then also called in, totalling a team of six cliff rescuers.
“He was stuck halfway up with serious injuries,” Tilsley says. “We had to get a paramedic up to him to help ease the pain. It was vertical and pretty technical.” The rescuers managed to winch him from the site up and out onto some overhanging rock. However, Tilsley says with 100km winds of probably 60 knots around the summit they were tricky conditions.
The man had been climbing with about five others and was flown to Dunedin Hospital.
The 17-strong Wakatipu cliff rescue team has had about four specialist rescues during the past three weeks. “That’s quite a lot for us. Maybe people are making the most of the warmer weather while they can, but they need to be careful, abseiling, not climbing down, and clicking into the proper anchors.”
Serious Skippers biking accident among air rescues
A person was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital in a serious condition by the Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter after a mountain biking accident on the Skippers Road-Coronet Peak Road at 2.15pm on Sunday, 16 March, a St John Ambulance spokesperson says. No further details were available. A patient was also flown to Dunedin Hospital in a moderate condition after an accident at Gibbston just before 1.30pm on Sunday (16 March). They also attended an accident on the Twin Rivers Trail at Arrow Junction just after 4pm last Wednesday (12 March). The Rescue Helicopter airlifted one patient to Lakes District Hospital. No further details were available.
Aussie keen for a drink
A 28-year-old Australian tourist grabbed a security guard’s arm and became disorderly after repeatedly trying to enter a closed bar on Rees Street just after 12.30am on Tuesday, 18 March, and being told to leave. Constable Amanda Shute says the man had been told that he couldn’t enter multiple times. Further staff assisted in restraining him until Police arrived and he was warned for disorderly behaviour.
Intoxicated teen makes a ruckus
A very intoxicated 19-year-old Canterbury male, refused entry to Bunker Bar just before midnight on Friday, 14 March, was seen entering a closed fenced area at Skyline Arcade, going upstairs and banging on the doors. Shute says he was issued with a formal written warning for allegedly being unlawfully in an enclosed yard.
Dutch drink driver on Gibbston Highway
A 32-year-old Dutch national elected a blood test after allegedly blowing 514mcg/l of breath when stopped by Police on the Gibbston Highway at 6.15pm on Sunday, 16 March. The person was forbidden from driving.
