Two loggers are lucky to be alive after being struck by a wayward tree in the Ladysmith area last Monday.
The cable loggers were reportedly working at a remote logging site at the end of Chipman Road when a log that had been hitched to a yarder accidentally swung back at them, and they were unable to get out of the way in time.
BC Ambulance Service flight paramedics arrived on scene via helicopter to tend to the workers but were not equipped to evacuate the patients from the rugged terrain. North Shore Rescue soon arrived on scene with an AS355 TwinStar helicopter to longline the patients and take them to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital to be assessed and treated.
“These two subjects could not have received better care,” stated a report from North Shore Rescue. “The paramedics who arrived with the medivac helicopter and hiked to the scene are all Critical Care Paramedics and thus trained to a very high level of emergency medicine. This high level of care was further supplemented by another Advanced Care Paramedic who is a member of the NSR HETS team.”
The loggers’ company, Nanaimo Lakes Logging, has said the workers are now OK, and that the matter is under investigation by TimberWest and the Workers Compensation Board.