Police cite lack of common sense as cause in recent drain of search resources by campers/quadders/etc.
By Kyra Hoggan
Four preventable incidents this month requiring massive drains on local RCMP and Search and Rescue (S&R) resources have police asking the public to apply common sense when heading into local backcountry.
September was kicked off by the first incident, which happened at around 5:30 p.m. Sept.1, according to Castlegar RCMP Cpl. Deb Postnikoff. “I local male hiker called,” she said. “He went up Merry Creek Road, then hiked/ran three to four kilometres up the trail to the peak and got lost. He called police, indicating he couldn’t find his way back to his vehicle, and nighttime was fast approaching – he had no warm clothes; no food or water supplies. “S&R located him within about 10 minutes,” she added. “It was very lucky he had excellent cell reception where he was. He was ill-equipped to be in the wilderness. It is ill-advised to begin a run into unfamiliar mountain terrain so close to nightfall, especially this time of year, with all the bears and cougars foraging, and with evening temperatures dropping so dramatically. Always wear layered clothing, and pack a bit of food and water.” The man was “shaken but unharmed”. Incident number-two took place Sept. 7, when a male attended the Castlegar detachment at about 2 p.m. “He advised police that he and a female friend were camping out at Gladstone log dump,” Postnikoff said. “For whatever reason, she declined to ride back with him to Castlegar in his vehicle, and was thus left stranded in the woods with no supplies and no transportation.” She said RCMP officers drove around the area for hours, but were unable to locate the woman before nightfall. Increasing concern led them to contact S&R by 7:05 p.m., who in turn sent in small teams by vehicle – they, too, were unsuccessful. Nighttime ultimately forced RCMP and S&R to call off searching until morning. At daybreak (around 6:30 a.m.), a boat patrol was launched in yet another fruitless search. Meanwhile, police contacted the original complainant, who said he had fallen asleep. He looked out his window and discovered the woman’s truck was no longer parked in his driveway. Police called the woman’s home at 6:45 a.m. and found her there, safe and sound. “She had evidently gotten a ride back with a boater,” Postnikoff said. But the calls were only half over at this point. “On Sept. 10, two men went hunting on mountain top trails just south of the Nancy Greene Junction on Highway 3B towards Rossland,” said Castlegar RCMP Cpl. Dan Pollock. “ After calling it quits on a morning of hunting, the men turned back, but chose to split and take different paths back. One man got lost and was noticed overdue by his friend around noon. After hours of searching himself, the man reported his friend missing to the Castlegar RCMP at 5 p.m. Facing cool overnight temperatures and only a couple hours of day light left, resources were immediately called in to assist in searching. S&R, along with a police dog and an RCMP helicopter were all called to assist. Fortunately, the man found his way down the maintenance road to safety before the search was fully underway and before dark.” And the fun continued: “On Sept. 11, three men went riding on quads and a dirt bike on trails near the Hugh Keenleyside Dam,” Pollock said. “A dirt bike one of them was riding broke down and they didn’t want to leave the bike behind. As a result, it took the three men until mid morning on Sept. 12 to emerge from the trail, walking the broken-down bike. In the meantime, one man’s concerned family members called RCMP to report the men missing, as they had not intended to be gone overnight. S&R were called out upon the RCMP receiving the report, (bringing) a small plane to assist. Friends of the missing men headed up the trail to (search). The men were found coming out of the trail and the search was cancelled.” Pollock noted that this was a particularly bad time for these preventable situations to occur. “This week in particular, resources were stretched especially thin because of search resources already seconded to the Amber Alert in Sparwood,” he said. Postnikoff concurred, adding that these situations forced police and volunteers to allocate resources that very likely could have been better used elsewhere. “People need to know how many resources are involved in these rescue attempts – the time, the money and the hundreds of man-hours,” she said. “There is extensive time and effort that goes into these files, that is taken away from other pressing police concerns. Common sense can prevent many of these false alarms.”
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