SNOW: 4X4 driver rescues stuck 999 crew (From Oxford Mail)

SNOW: 4X4 driver rescues stuck 999 crew

7:00am Friday 8th January 2010 in News By Giles Sheldrick

IF YOU want to get ahead, get a 4x4. The extreme arctic conditions experienced across Oxfordshire since Tuesday night have proved no match for those with off road vehicles.

South Central Ambulance Service has been loaned 40 off road vehicles by 4x4 owners eager to help frontline paramedics reach patients stranded in the snow.

But luckily for one ambulance crew, 4x4 driver Stewart Griffiths was able to tow their heavy vehicle out of thick snow in Kennington, enabling the paramedics to reach a pensioner who had fallen and broken her ankle.

The ambulance got stuck in Cranbrook Drive on Wednesday afternoon.

But Oxfordshire County Council IT worker Mr Griffiths, who was using his Land Rover to drop colleagues off at their homes, was able to pull the ambulance clear in his vehicle.

Mr Griffiths, 35, of Eynsham Road, Cassington, said: “A number of people were trying to push the ambulance up the hill, but it soon became apparent it was a hopeless exercise.

“I asked whether they would like a tow, attached the rope on to the front of the vehicle, took a short run up and managed to drag it all the way up the hill.

“The snow was so deep it really stretched the limits of the vehicle.”

The pensioner is now recovering at home after treatment at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Elsewhere in Oxfordshire, the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance was grounded on Wednesday due to bad visibility, but the paramedics used a 4x4 vehicle to reach an 88-year-old man in Benson, south Oxfordshire, who had fallen over and hurt his arm.

South Central Ambulance Service has reported a higher-than-normal number of maternity-related calls since Tuesday’s snowfall .

In one 18 hour stretch, the service received a total of 43 999 maternity-related calls — the average on a normal day would be 14.

Paramedics have been called out to homes where families have been unable to drive to hospital because of the snow, resulting in a higher-than-normal number of home births.

An ambulance service spokesman said: “We very much appreciate members of the public who have come to our aid with 4x4 vehicles — in particular to the 4x4 Enthusiast’s Club which has donated 40 vehicles and drivers to help ensure our essential frontline and control staff get into work. We have had the public helping in many different ways — the effort has been great.”