Four Williams Lake mine workers have been honoured with Good Samaritan awards from BC Emergency Health Services for helping during a single vehicle crash on Highway 97 two years ago on May 25, 2023.
Brian Getson, Jonathan Neufeld, Shawn Shaw and Rick Skerry gathered with family and coworkers to receive the awards at the BCEHS station in Williams Lake on Thursday, May 29.
Geraldine Elkins, manager for seven BCEHS stations in the region including Williams Lake, welcomed everyone to the territory before primary care paramedic Daniel Bott presented the awards.
The award, Bott said, honours the actions of people or a group of people who are willing to put their own needs on hold to respond to the needs of others in a medical emergency.
“I was on the call myself and my partner and I both nominated you for these awards,” he told the men. “I’m unbelievably thankful to you gentlemen for helping us out. It was quite a difficult situation.”
Reading from a prepared statement he described how a vehicle was travelling northbound on Highway 97. When the driver attempted to pass, he rolled the vehicle and was ejected.
"He was actually thrown quite far down an embankment through a very large grove of trees and thankfully landed on something soft and not on the pile of brush that was right beside him,” Bott said.
Skerry arrived first on the scene, while Getson, Neufeld and Shaw - who are members of the mine rescue team - happened to be en route to mine rescue training when they stopped and pulled over.
Bott said the four men kept the patient warm, safe and still, which is all very important as there was concern the man may have sustained a back injury or a neck injury. Additionally, they helped Bott and his partner, along with members of the Wildwood Volunteer Fire Department and Central Cariboo Search and Rescue get the patient onto a clam shell, put a collar on his neck and then extricate him up to the road.
“It was about a kilometre and a half with trees, bushes, hills and all sorts of matters of things we stepped on and fell over,” Bott said, noting it was ugly terrain.
The patient was then transported safely to the hospital with no further injuries and has, Bott said, to the best of his knowledge, recovered fully.
“Gentleman that is in a large part because of you,” Bott told the award recipients. “As somebody who has been doing this for well over nine years I can count on maybe both hands the amount of times I’ve had bystanders willing to jump in to help me out on a call and put themselves at risk to help care for another human being.”
The mine rescue team said they are training again presently, and on May 25, 2023, Getson, Neufeld and Shaw happened to be travelling in the same vehicle together toward the mine for training. They had their first aid gear in the trunk of the car so they grabbed their equipment and went to work.
Getson has worked at the mine for 11 years, Shaw for 10 years, Brian 16 years and Skerry 21 years.
“I would like to thank BCEHS for all the work they do,” Getson said. “They are the heroes, we just help them out. Same with the Wildwood Fire Department as well as CCSAR. We helped them out - they are there every day.”
