A 76-year-old man was airlifted to hospital with undetermined injuries after a single-vehicle crash on the riverbank near the Clarkboro Ferry last weekend.
The crash happened at about 11:15 pm on Saturday, September 19. According to Corman Park Police, the vehicle was a Hyundai Elantra driven by a 76-year-old male resident of Prince Albert.
Warman Fire Chief Russ Austin said a motorist who had just gotten off the ferry and was driving westbound up the hill witnessed the accident and called 911. Warman Fire Rescue was dispatched to the scene along with the RCMP, Corman Park Police, Medavie Ambulance and STARS Ambulance.
“Someone called 911 and said they saw a car fly off the river hills near the Clarkboro Ferry,” said Austin in an interview on September 21. “We arrived on scene and found an eastbound vehicle that had come off the road, and instead of turning left to go down to the river hill towards the ferry; it instead continued straight east right to the edge of the cliff and then went over and down before doing a bit of a cartwheel and coming to rest just before it reached the river.
“We found the car had come to a stop about five feet from the water’s edge, teetering on a tree and sitting on its driver’s side door, trapping the driver, who was the single occupant of the vehicle.”
Austin said rescuers worked in difficult conditions in the darkness to extricate the crash victim.
“There was a lot of river muck, and that made it a bit tricky because we had to make sure the vehicle was stabilized and didn’t fall into the river; and also protect our responders.”
Austin said firefighters used cordless saws to cut the car open and “flap” the roof to release the occupant. While that was going on, another firefighter was on top of the hill guiding the STARS helicopter to a safe landing. The patient was carried from the wreck to an ambulance, and from there driven to the helicopter, where he was flown to hospital.
Austin said the driver was lucky to be alive.
“It was very fortunate that someone witnessed the crash,” he said. “If that motorist had been five minutes earlier or five minutes later, nobody would have known that car was down there.”