After 15 years on the job it takes something else to raise the eyebrows of a paramedic.
A single vehicle collision last Friday night at the iconic stone gate to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge had that effect on Jasper operations supervisor for Associated Ambulance, Mike Mahoney.
In his office at the emergency services building, he pulled up a photo of a heavily damaged vehicle he had to describe as a one-ton pickup.
The truck came to rest across the road near to between the posts of the gate and sent town, Parks and private crews scrambling to redirect traffic to the sprawling hotel campus along a service road that runs from Old Fort Point and bisects the golf course.
Unbelievably, the male driver was conscious when first responders including RCMP, paramedics and members of the Jasper fire brigade, who were sitting down to their annual Christmas party at the Sawridge when the call went out at about 7:30 p.m., arrived. Mahoney said he was impressed that FJPL staff at one point brought out hot coffee for the responders at the scene.
Mahoney estimated it took 45 minutes for firefighters to extract the driver from the truck. He was the lone occupant and once out was driven by Jasper EMS directly to Hinton airport where STARS took over and flew him to the medical centre at the University of Alberta. Mahoney said he suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries, and that alcohol could not be ruled out as a factor.
“In 15 years I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
