Mayor says incident highlights risks of long ambulance trips after local ER cuts.
An ambulance crash near Tumbler Ridge in northeast B.C. has sparked frustration over the widening gap in emergency care for the remote mountain community.
The crash happened last Saturday on Highway 52 when an ambulance transporting a patient slid into a ditch during a snowstorm.
B.C. Emergency Health Services says no one was seriously injured, but Mayor Darryl Krakowka says the incident underscores the dangers faced by patients and paramedics after cuts to the district’s emergency room last fall.
“We’re a remote mountain community, and this year’s heavy snow is really putting people at risk,” he said.
Tumbler Ridge has been without evening and weekend emergency room services since September due to a doctor shortage.
After-hours emergency patients are now transported by ambulance over an hour to the nearest hospital in Dawson Creek.
Krakowka says those in the recent crash were fortunate it didn’t happen on a more dangerous stretch of highway where the ambulance could have rolled. “It’s a very small community. We’re about 2,700 people,” he said. “It’s one big family here.”
BCEHS reports the incident happened around 3:45 p.m. PT on Jan. 3, with a second ambulance taking over the patient transport.
Neither the patient nor the two paramedics sustained significant injuries.
Spokesperson Brian Twaites says the incident is under review, the damaged ambulance is being repaired, and a replacement unit is already in service in Tumbler Ridge.
-with files from Matt Prepost/CBC
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