Episode 9 Countryside 999

Rural Britain has some of the most challenging

environments in the world.

In Scotland the mountains, lochs and coastline, encourage tourists

and locals to get out into the wilds.

But with that comes danger.

The emergency services north of the border

have to deal with extreme challenges every day.

Raising the winch.

Keep your arms by your side!

From severe weather and treacherous terrain...

..To covering huge distances on rural roads with time against them.

We're doing about 85 miles per hour just now.

They work around the clock,

battling against some of the most difficult situations.

We'll be right at the heart of the action.

Side-by-side with Air Rescue saving lives.

On the road with paramedics caring for the injured,

and following the police, fighting crime,

as the emergency services work together, to pick up,

patch up and protect the public, in rural communities.

This is Countryside 999.

Coming up, paramedics race to a woman who's struggling to breathe.

The Royal Navy helicopter team scramble

to a serious accident in a remote forest...

..And Stranraer's community police investigate

a very rural crime.

Someone who believes he's been systematically

poisoning trees in his forest.

Britain's stunning coastlines,

luscious landscapes and rugged terrain have drawn a fifth of us

to live in our rural regions.

Protecting and treating people in countryside communities

means extra challenges for the emergency services...

..where longer distances and journey times

increase the risk for those needing help.

In Dumfries and Galloway,

there's one member of the Ambulance Service

for every 15 square miles.

In London, there are 108.

Local lad and ambulance technician Malky McNeish

followed in his father's footsteps, joining the Ambulance Service

eight years ago.

He's on shift today,

with former Londoner and paramedic

of 20 years, Paul Votier.

They've just received an emergency call

to a woman in a critical condition.

The woman's daughter

and partner happen to be visiting from Birmingham

and were there to dial 999.

Malky and Paul

must get to the 62-year-old woman's house urgently.

She's struggling to breathe,

so this could be life-threatening.

SIREN WAILS

The patient, Susan, lives in the small village of Ecclefechan,

6 and a half miles from Lockerbie.

Despite the wet roads, they get to Susan's house in 12 minutes flat.

-I'll drop you off.

-Listen, I'll get the bag and the 02.

-Right.

COUGHING

It's all right, darling.

Once inside, Paul finds Susan gasping for breath.

He immediately fits her with a nebuliser containing Ventolin

to help expand her airways.

Paul finds out Susan has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,

a serious lung condition that affects her breathing.

She normally manages with an inhaler,

but today she woke up fighting for air.

'When we first see this patient, she's in the kitchen'

and she had obvious signs of bronchospasms,

the way she was sitting, the audible wheeze, it's all signs that

her airway's constricting

and it's getting plugged by the mucus.

The treatment for that is Ventolin, which is,

we put into a nebuliser, we run oxygen through it

and what it does then is just starts opening up the airway

and starts loosening off the mucus so the airway starts getting bigger

and start getting her breathing under control.

Susan has smoked for 40 years

and knows it's been a contributing factor.

When was the last time you had to have a nebuliser?

OK. 'There are normally triggers.'

This lady went to bed last night fine, fully well,

woke up this morning with this tightness in her chest,

with this cough, short of breath. Then the panic sets in as well,

so she knew then that she was in trouble and she needed help.

Listen, Susan, we're going to get you a chair

-and take you into the ambulance.

-OK.

-We'll get you fixed better there.

-OK.

-Does it feel as if the oxygen is helping?

-Yes.

You're starting to speak to me in full sentences again,

-you're not so much...

-Not so much. Yeah.

-Have you got a pair of slippers or anything you want to put on?

-Er, no.

The drugs are now slowly kicking in.

But Susan's condition could deteriorate at any moment.

They must get her to the specialist care she needs.

You pop your feet up.

Any allergies at all, Susan?

SHE COUGHS

The coughing's making it even harder for Susan to breathe.

So she is given a second dose of Ventolin.

SHE COUGHS

Her daughter Joanne is accompanying her to the hospital.

This might make you cough a little bit more,

-it loosens it all up, OK?

-SHE COUGHS

That's what we want.

Just going to take your temperature, Susan, OK, in your ear.

It's been an alarming ordeal for Joanne.

It takes 25 minutes to make the 17-mile journey to hospital.

But the drugs continue to ease Susan's breathing.

She's delivered to a specialist team who will ensure

there are no blockages that may stop her breathing again.

If she hadn't had that treatment, if we weren't called,

her airway would have closed.

It would have just closed.

And she would, at some point, have lost consciousness,

she would have collapsed and I think she would have died, maybe.

If we weren't called.

Reaching far-flung locations quickly

can be difficult for rural emergency services,

and navigating remote forest is particularly challenging.

In Scotland, the timber and forestry industry

employs around 40,000 people, often in hard-to-reach places,

so, when accidents happen, getting to them is rarely easy.

On Scotland's south-west coast,

HMS Gannet operates one of the busiest Royal Navy search and rescue units

in Britain, covering an area 12 times the size of Wales.

PHONE RINGS

It's 2pm, and an emergency call has just come in.

Observer or Navigator Phil Gamble. is taking the details.

Yep?

Chest, right arm and ankle, OK.

A forestry worker is reported to be badly injured,

crushed under a tree in remote woodland.

We're then going to Tighnabruaich

and in absence of the two, 975 728.

Also on call today are pilot Jon Green and winchman, Taff Ashman.

We've just been called to a possible tree surgeon or lumberjack

that's had a tree come down on top of him.

He's got various crush injuries,

sort of chest and left-hand side, I think it was, from the phone call.

We're going to go pick up a couple of doctors first

and we'll take it from there.

INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER

Co-pilot is Lloydy Shanahan, veteran of eight tours in Bosnia, Iraq

and Afghanistan. He's faced his fair share of enemies.

But today, he's up against one of the crew's biggest adversaries -

the weather.

The casualty is in remote woodland in Tighnabruaich,

on the Cowal Peninsula.

Early information suggests it's a serious injury.

So Lloydy and pilot Jon collect a paramedic

and doctor from the emergency medical retrieval team in Glasgow,

taking their specialist knowledge direct to the scene.

The Sea King helicopter is quickly airborne again.

But it's not long before they get a worrying update.

The man is trapped under a tree, but misty weather and

the impenetrable forest is playing havoc with the rescue, making it

difficult for teams on the ground to pinpoint his exact location.

The helicopter crew monitor communications from the scene.

It's not looking good.

If the teams on the ground can't find the casualty soon,

the navy crew will have to join the search for him on foot,

in dense forest and worsening weather.

Carrying out emergency operations in difficult conditions

is par for the course in rural areas.

Earlier, paramedic Paul Votier

and ambulance technician Malky McNeish navigated wet country roads

to get Susan to hospital when she was struggling to breathe.

Now they must negotiate more rainy roads, this time in darkness,

in response to a 999 call they have just received.

Two cars have crashed on the M74 motorway.

A motorway crash can be devastating at any time of the day,

but at night, the risk increases.

Not knowing whether anyone is seriously injured,

Paul and Malky blue light to the scene.

You know, somebody has maybe either aquaplaned or a tyre has blown

and they've maybe hit the central reservation, bounced back out.

It could be two cars colliding, it could be anything, really,

so you never know what you're going to.

SIRENS BLARE

A call like this requires a joint effort

between the emergency services.

Police officers Stuart Delaney

and David Holland are also racing to the scene.

We've just had a call from the control room, telling us

that there is a two vehicle collision

just north of Gretna.

We don't know if there's any injuries at the moment.

Motorway accidents are particularly hazardous.

With high-speed traffic on a dark, rainy night

a two-car crash can easily turn into a multi-car pile up.

The officers are blue-lighting to the incident, but without

knowing what lies ahead, they can't go as fast as they would like.

It's one of these things, when we don't know exactly where it is,

you don't want to go tearing up at 130mph up the motorway

and suddenly come across a car sitting in lane three with no lights.

Hard shoulder.

David and Stuart must use the hard shoulder to get to the accident.

Roger. Standing traffic, all three lanes at the moment.

And we're just approaching it now.

We have still got one vehicle in lane one...

at the moment.

The officers are first on scene.

There is one damaged car on the hard shoulder

and another is in a nearside lane, so they cone off the area.

After the crash, driver Dennis and his passenger fled their car,

which was dangerously stranded in the middle of the motorway.

How are you doing, folks? Were you involved at all?

Right, which is your car?

They've just dragged it off? All right.

What's this car here? Was that involved as well?

So that's involved as well. Who was driving that?

It appears there were more than two cars involved

in this motorway crash.

We'll just get this car off. >

Just moments after Dennis and his friends escaped their car,

it was hit by a second vehicle.

Now that vehicle is stranded in lane one and the driver can't shift it.

Is this your car, is it? Can you drive it off at all?

It won't move? Right, OK dokes.

We'll just have to drag it off. OK?

When you arrive on the scene of an accident like that,

you've got so many things to consider, you have to consider

your safety, your colleague's safety, every member of the public's safety.

When the traffic is not flowing properly,

it tends to cause more accidents as well.

It's rush hour,

so the police tow the car off the carriageway themselves.

Altaf saw the accident ahead.

But too late.

The car was right in the middle of the road when I was coming.

So I just tried to pull to the left side,

but still I hit the front of that car.

PCs David and Stuart walk up the hard shoulder to find

the third car involved.

Down the offside, I think.

Tyres are all right.

You'd say that's driveable.

It may be driveable,

but the car's driver Adam has knocked his head in the crash.

Paramedics Malky and Paul have just arrived on scene.

They assess Adam's injury.

When you spun the car,

did you say that your head banged against the window?

That's fine. Definitely no pain in your neck?

-No, it feels OK.

-Can you put your chin on your chest?

-Is it sore to do that? No?

-A little bit.

-Right.

And what about side to side?

-Yeah, OK.

-Fine. That's good.

-Just here feels...

Aye, so it's mainly just that you've had a bang on the head, I think.

Adam's head injury is minor, but he is still in shock.

Driving along.

Yeah, just out of the blue, erm,

someone hit the side of the car and luckily...

there was nobody on the inside.

I managed to keep control and got it on to the hard shoulder.

Big shock. Yeah. Real surprise.

They've all walked out their vehicle, so it could have been a lot worse.

But it's a good outcome to what looks like quite a bad accident.

With no other injured parties,

the paramedics can leave the police to pick up the pieces.

It's been a very lucky escape for the three drivers.

David and Stuart now have the task of finding out exactly how

this three-car pile up happened.

Later, the traffic cops discover there is more to this accident

than meets the eye.

In Stranraer, the police are on the lookout for driving offences.

It's believed that the licence may be revoked,

and it's also coming up as no insurance.

But first, recovering the injured forestry worker is a risky business

for the Navy's search and rescue team.

In remote woodland near Tighnabruaich in Argyll,

the Royal Navy search and rescue team are desperately searching

for a seriously injured lumberjack.

Dreadful weather and thick forest mean rescue teams

on the ground have failed to locate the casualty.

They believe he's pinned under a tree with crush injuries,

so the helicopter crew need to find him fast.

Pilot Jon skilfully flies the 10-ton Sea King

in the gap between the low cloud base and the treetops.

But visibility is poor.

And the casualty is nowhere to be seen.

The team prepare to lower winchman Taff to look

for the casualty on foot.

Lower the winch.

Taff spots an 80-foot weather mast looming ahead,

a dangerous hazard for the helicopter hovering nearby.

Proceeded to walk along the tree line for a couple of hundred yards

and then just coming out of the mist,

I could actually spot a mast.

We've got good visuals on the trees,

but obviously the mist is lingering above them,

and then all of a sudden you see a mast just come out of the fog.

It's a bit like diving a car and all of a sudden you see

an animal on the road in front of you. It comes as a bit of a shock.

Pilot Jon must be extremely careful.

If the helicopter's 9-metre rotor blades get caught

in the mast's cables, it could send them crashing to the ground.

But, in finding it, they also spot something else.

The coastguard on the ground have found the injured man.

The crew uplift Taff and head towards the casualty,

who is located worryingly close to the 80-foot mast.

Paramedic Nicola needs to be winched down,

but Jon is anxious about hovering so close to the dangerous obstacle.

One of the big things to be aware of when you're flying anywhere near

a very tall mast is that they've got long cables

securing them that come out quite a way from the mast and generally,

the taller the mast is, the further away from the mast these cables go.

80 yards.

Manoeuvring so close to the mast is testing

the mettle of the entire team.

With the lumberjack wedged under a tree suffering from crush injuries,

the crew must winch Taff and the medic down as quickly as they can.

Like the search and rescue team, paramedics and police

have also joined forces in Dumfries.

They're working together to make sure passengers

and vehicles involved in a multi-car collision

on a motorway aren't in harm's way, or endangering other road users.

It's a dark, rainy winter's night. The cars have been badly damaged.

But incredibly, the three drivers

and passenger have escaped almost unharmed.

That's fine. Definitely no pain in your neck?

No, feels OK.

Now PCs David Holland and Stuart Delaney must get to the bottom

of what could have caused the accident.

They start with the first driver, Dennis.

But it is not as straightforward as they thought.

There's more to this accident than meets the eye.

Dennis reveals he was first hit by a mystery fourth vehicle,

which seems to have left the scene.

Then he hit Adam from the impact of the crash.

Dennis and his passenger legged it to the hard shoulder

before Altaf hit the back of Dennis's abandoned vehicle.

It wasn't just three cars involved as we initially thought, but there

was a fourth car that had possibly caused the accident

that had failed to stop.

Stuart questions the third car's driver, Adam, to see

if he can help identify the elusive fourth vehicle.

On a busy motorway in the pitch black,

establishing the facts can be difficult.

Stuart contacts the control room to ask other units to

be on the lookout for the other missing fourth car.

It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The vehicle which has caused this hasn't stopped,

it's continued northwards. It's obviously got a 25 minute head start.

We don't have any details of it whatsoever other than it's

dark in colour, which obviously won't help too much.

That type of collision there's obviously going to be

a lot of scraping on the offside of the accused's vehicle.

11% of traffic accidents in Britain in 2011 were hit-and-runs like this.

They would have known they had been involved in a collision

and, therefore, they have a duty to stop and report that,

which they haven't done, so should I manage to trace

the driver of that vehicle, or the vehicle,

then they will get reported for failing to stop

and report an accident and also probably careless driving.

Both these charges carry heavy penalties with a fine,

points and possible disqualification.

Failing to stop can even result in six months in prison.

The scene is cleared of cars and debris,

all lanes reopened and the driver is taken home.

This turned out to be a four-car collision on a fast flowing motorway.

But miraculously all those involved have walked away relatively unharmed.

Certainly what the drivers are saying has happened is it doesn't

appear that any of them are to blame. There may be a fourth vehicle involved,

but the main thing is all the drivers are OK, there's no injuries and we'll

put what's known as a statistical report in for insurance purposes,

basically. Whether anybody gets reported or not remains to be seen.

As well as investigating crime, preventing it is key

and sometimes that means bringing in extra help from the wider community.

In south-west Scotland, Stranraer police, part of Britain's

smallest mainland police force, has a busy unit doing just that.

Home of the UK's second busiest port,

they cover both coastline and countryside.

Today PC Siobhan Pellet, community policing officer for just one year,

is working with volunteers called Special Constables.

They're very, very important. They're from the local community

and the work that they do here is immense.

This side is not as bad as the other side. The other side is loose.

Special Constables are trying to work side alongside regular

officers. Today SPC Jay Rew is conducting checks on the A75,

one of the regions most notorious roads.

Today we're taking part in a Special Constables coordinated winter

safety check along the A75,

where we're pulling in vehicles and checking

the vehicles for defects and hopefully getting them away

to the garage and getting any problems fixed before anything happens.

It's not long before Jay has found a few problems with a car

they've stopped.

The rear bumper of the vehicle has obviously been

removed from the main chassis of the vehicle, and obviously

when you're driving along, that can get caught by the wind, cause

damage to other vehicles and could cause yourself to have a bigger accident.

And then the concern at the tyre is along the outside edge,

it's gone bald and it's a reminder for him

to get the tyres changed as soon as he can.

Obviously my advice to you is get the vehicle off the road

until you can get that fixed, OK?

Local driver John is given 21 days to fix his car

and hand in documents to the police station.

But just as he's about to pull away,

Siobhan discovers an unexpected problem.

John, can you just switch off the engine again for us, please?

Just wait for my colleague to come back out and speak to me.

Something has come up that she needs to discuss with you, all right?

Thank you.

What's actually happened is it's believed the licence may be

revoked and it's also coming up as no insurance within the vehicle,

so we're just clarifying some things in relation to it.

John's day is about to get even worse.

At this present time, they're saying that the licence has been revoked.

Have you had points on your licence?

Have you been caught speeding or something and you're meant to

have sent your driving licence away to get points put on?

I got caught on my mobile phone,

but I haven't heard anything back from it yet from my solicitor.

These are things you have to look at and that's why we turn around

and see you've only got so many days to notify DVLA of a change

of address and that's why it's to stop things like this happening.

I sent my licence away though.

What will happen is if you bring all your stuff in within seven days,

we'll deal with it there instead.

John's licence has not been updated with points

from his mobile phone charge

and he's failed to notify the DVLA that he has changed address,

so it's coming up that his licence and insurance are not valid.

He's now got just seven days to present paperwork at the station,

otherwise, he could face a fine of up to £1,000.

I know, personally, the officers that I work with,

they are very dedicated, they come out on a very regular basis

and what they give back is just immense.

An interesting case for the specials hoping to make this notorious

-road that little bit safer.

-Thanks anyway. Sorry about that.

Enjoy the rest of your journey back home. Take care.

Around 19% of driving licences could have incorrect information.

If you've moved recently, then notify the DVLA or you too

could risk a hefty fine.

On the remote Cowal Peninsula on Scotland's west coast,

the Royal Navy search and rescue team are racing to find

an injured lumberjack who has been crushed under a tree.

It's a joint effort between local paramedics

and the Coast Guard, who have just found the casualty,

and two emergency medics who are airlifted to treat the man

on site in this remote location.

Paramedic Nicola will be winched down to assess the casualty,

who they believe is suffering from crush injuries.

OK. Good position. Good position.

But the lumberjack is next to a large mast,

making it difficult for the helicopter to hover.

Observer Phil has directed the Sea King to a safe position.

Winchman Taff is lowered down first from a height of 130 feet,

quickly followed by paramedic Nicola.

Lower the winch. Lower the winch.

Lower the winch.

With reports of the casualty being crushed by a tree,

Taff and Nicola waste no time.

OK, it's clear.

They discover the lumberjack is no longer trapped under the tree

and his condition is not as bad as they had feared,

but his crush injuries are causing a lot of pain.

Myself and Nicola went down and I made an assessment of the guy.

The injuries were not life-threatening.

I think he had a broken or a dislocation to his arm

and a few other minor cuts and bruises, but certainly not

the life-threatening crush injuries that we thought.

Since the injured lumberjack is able to move, winchman Taff

radios up to confirm a stretcher will not be needed.

Paramedic Nicola is winched up first.

We were able to extract him by winch without having to stretcher him,

in a similar harness to one I would wear.

Finally lumberjack Scott is safely uplifted.

Scott's arm and leg injuries are taking their toll.

Nicola administers the pain relieving gas Entonox.

It's a short flight back to base where an ambulance is waiting.

It might be just a short distance to the stretcher,

but it's a giant step for a lumberjack with an injured foot.

A last blast of Entonox and he takes the plunge.

HE GROANS

Right. Turn around. Turn around.

Scott is handed over to local paramedics who will take him

to the hospital ten minutes away.

Another successful joint effort from the team at HMS Gannet.

Nearly 13% of Britain's landscape is forest and woodland.

Accessing these areas can be difficult for the emergency services

and their isolated locations can also encourage countryside crime.

Dumfries and Galloway police cover a large geographical beat,

a quarter of which is woodland.

In Stranraer on Scotland's south-west coast,

PC Siobhan Pellet deals with a wide range of cases.

Earlier she and some colleagues were on the lookout for traffic offences.

Have you been caught speeding or something and you're meant to

have sent your driving licence away to get points put on?

I got caught on my mobile phone.

Now she is on the case with a very rural crime unlike any you

would find in the city.

We're actually going to speak to a gentleman who lives

just on the outskirts.

Unfortunately over the past 18 months, someone,

he believes, has been systematically poisoning trees in his forest,

so we have the Forestry Commission with us today

to make sure that it's not someone actually poisoning the trees.

Malicious poisoning is rare but it could be mindless vandalism.

Over the last 18 months, Siobhan has visited several times

but as yet they have found no proof of poisoning.

Something is happening definitely to the trees.

As you see when we go in, it's just... The forest is just dead.

Siobhan wants to get to the bottom of the mystery

tree assassin for forest owner Howard Sunderland.

He has spent thousands of pounds developing the woodland.

Howard first noticed a problem with his trees last year.

He is convinced they are being sabotaged.

I have owned this wood, which is six acres, near enough five years.

The trouble being at the moment that the spruce appear to be

dying for some reason.

Exactly what it is we don't know, that's why we're taking

professional advice.

Siobhan has enlisted the help of Forestry Commission tree

expert Ian to help shed some light on the mystery.

Last winter these small spruce here, their needles in December

and January went like a brown colour.

If you look at them, they're nearly all dead.

We do suspect that there has been people in on a night

because we have seen lamps on in here, infrared lamps, and we've

come down and tried to see who it is but they've given us the slip.

If you were to poison a tree,

how much would you actually have to use to kill a fully grown tree?

Somewhere in the range of 10-50 millilitres.

There's nothing here at the moment.

Obviously I'll have a closer look to see if we can see any

marks on the bark, see if anything has been injected.

Ian cannot find any evidence of man-made poisoning.

His suspicions are turning to a much smaller culprit.

So I think you want to be looking for in spring and summer

is that green beetle.

Elatobium, or green spruce aphid,

is a tiny insect roughly two millimetres long

that infests spruce trees.

It causes widespread damage, especially during winter,

by sucking sap from the tree, killing off its needles.

You can see green needles on the very end,

so again that's consistent with Elatobium damage.

I know it looks like Elatobium damage, I realise that.

All the evidence is pointing towards aphids and not poisoning.

-But Ian wants to be sure.

-I can't see any sort of man-made...

No, no, because I realise that what some do,

they drill them, don't they?

And then inject whatever.

What you would be looking then is death throughout the tree

with a herbicide.

I think from what we've seen on the trees,

I think it's Elatobium abietinum, the great spruce aphid,

also had a look at a neighbouring property

and seen not as much damage but some of the damage as well.

So that's what I think it is.

Mystery solved.

The insects should go, leaving the trees to recover over time.

This is not vandalism which is great news for Howard

-and a big weight off his mind.

-I'm extremely happy.

-Very, very pleased to be quite honest.

-Good.

-Absolutely.

The gentleman has spent an awful lot of money on this forest,

buying it, putting in more trees.

He's lost a lot of sleep and his health has suffered,

but it may give him some form of closure knowing that it might

be a disease rather than somebody poisoning them.

It's a good result.

It's been all go for the emergency services in Scotland's rural areas.

Susan spent two weeks in hospital after a relapse.

Thanks to the medical care she received,

she is now back home and getting rehab in her local cottage hospital.

After being a smoker for 40 years, she's now quit.

The mysterious fourth vehicle involved in the crash

on the M74 was never found.

Now the insurance companies will take over

and decide who pays out to whom.

And lumberjack Scott was delivered safely to hospital where

he received the specialist medical care he needed.

And you thought it was quiet in the countryside.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd