Episode 4 Countryside 999

From the Highlands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall,

the Great British countryside is spectacular.

But we work and play in it... at our peril.

SIREN WAILS

And when things go wrong, the emergency services

race to the rescue.

This chap is having a heart attack, and we need to get him in quickly.

We've got a cow on the road, countryside policing at its finest!

Going hundreds of miles against the clock.

Battling the elements and braving the waves.

HE CRIES OUT IN PAIN

From fields and forests...to cliffs and country roads.

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

With police fighting crime...

I'm not arguing it, I'm reporting you for it.

..paramedics saving lives....

..and lifeguards patrolling the seas.

We're there as the emergency services pull together to

pick up, patch up and protect the public.

This is Countryside 999.

Coming up - in Scotland there's double trouble

for the medics at a mountain bike competition.

Argh!

In Wales, the police go head-to-head with a heifer.

-HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

-All right.

And the Royal Navy race to rescue an injured walker on the top

of Britain's highest mountain.

Britain's stunning scenery is just part of what attracts

a fifth of us to live in the countryside.

And lures millions more to head out into the wilds

to enjoy what it has to offer.

But when people are in trouble in remote areas,

our rural emergency services can face an uphill battle.

Dumfries and Galloway in southwest Scotland boasts a glorious landscape

of rolling hills, small towns and fertile farmland.

Peaceful, pastoral bliss, you might think.

Well, think again.

It's got some of the best mountain-biking terrain in Britain.

This weekend, the Forest of Ae, 12 miles north of Dumfries,

is hosting a major downhill racing competition.

RACE ANNOUNCER: This looks like Ben, rider for Perth City Cycles.

It's a technically demanding course - steep and fast.

A thrill-seeker's adrenaline rush.

CHEERING

Out here, in the back of beyond, it's vital to have medics on hand.

In this case, a team of highly-trained specialists,

headed up by Paul Roe.

At a downhill mountain bike event we'll treat approximately

10% of the competitors that are here to compete over the weekend.

With over 200 riders taking part, that's plenty to keep

Paul and his colleagues busy.

ANNOUNCER: So that's Chris, that's a good-looking time as well.

We employ a wide range of skills - doctors, nurses, paramedics.

That's our sort of skill base.

But what they all have in common is

they enjoy working out here.

Bit of a change from being in a hospital

or a doctor's surgery during the week.

Whoa!

This crack medical team can quickly reach anyone who's hurt.

Because even the most experienced rider can come a cropper.

Sometimes it's just a tumble.

-Ouch!

-Nasty.

But it can get a lot more serious.

Ohhh!

Argh!

A spectator has caught 19-year-old Dougie's high-speed crash

on his mobile.

It's happened on one of the steepest sections of the course.

The race is immediately stopped.

As Dougie lies motionless, Paul and a team of stretcher volunteers

have a good 150-metre climb up rough ground.

Paul needs to work out quickly just how badly Dougie's hurt.

Dougie's conscious, but in acute pain.

Paul must get him off the hill and into the treatment tent immediately.

But it's tricky.

The vacuum mattress will mould to the shape of Dougie's body,

keeping him still and steady while they move him.

Not knowing just how bad Dougie's injuries are,

the team must tread carefully on the steep path.

But for this tough guy, its about to get a whole lot tougher.

SIREN WAILS

Helping the ill and injured

is a vital part of what the emergency services do.

But they also try to prevent accidents

from happening in the first place.

In the summer months, the usually quiet country roads

are heaving with holiday traffic.

So countryside cops do what they can to keep them free from hazards.

Dyfed-Powys Police Force covers

a huge, wild and beautiful part of Mid Wales.

In Brecon, PC Geraint Skyrme works in the Roads Policing Unit.

He's been a bobby for 12 years.

This is all I ever wanted to do since I was a little lad.

My uncle was in the police.

And I can just remember from a young age, really,

when I went to visit him, and can remember how cool it was

seeing him, I thought it was the best thing ever.

And ever since then, that's all I've ever wanted to do, really.

Today, Geraint's on the lookout for seat belt abusers.

We're in Brecon town at present.

We're at the start of a national seat belt campaign, ongoing,

hence the reason we're in this discreet little spot.

To try and have a look if people are complying

with the regulation of wearing a seat belt.

But, within minutes, he receives a message from base.

Yep, received. I'll go and move it on, over.

-Like that one, like that link. DISPATCHER:

-Thank you...

SIREN WAILS

Countryside policing at its finest.

We've got a report of a cow on the road.

The particular stretch of road isn't a very nice one

at the best of times.

It might sound humorous, but half a ton of heifer

on a country lane is a real danger to road users - and herself.

Ahh, there it is. Having a good old graze.

RADIO CHATTER

I'll put a coat on so I don't get knocked down.

See if we can drive this cow up into the field here.

QUIETLY: Slow, slow, slow...

Come on. On you go, babe.

Come on, then. HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

Go on, you know you want to.

Come on, in we go.

HE LAUGHS

-Giving us the run.

-Whoa, watch that van!

Given us the run. We'll need another unit up here,

we will, to drive it in the field.

Slow down, slow down, there's a big, big cow in the road, slow down.

RADIO CHATTER

..in the field now.

The pesky beast has scarpered.

Luckily, Geraint's a dab hand at going backwards.

Hey! The cow's gone in the field itself.

-Bingo! The offender's safely behind bars.

-There we are.

Go ahead.

We have one cow now back in the field.

We'll go and make sure there's not another one,

but we've put the one that was in the middle of the road

in the field now, so we'll go and check.

Thank you.

Whilst it is quite comical that there's a cow in the middle

of the road, it can have

potentially quite catastrophic effects on someone.

You imagine that brown cow being on that road at night,

when it's pitch-black at 11 or 12 o'clock,

then it's going to end nasty, really.

Later, we join Geraint on another blue light emergency.

This time, it's an attempted robbery.

The lady has made off from the site.

We're looking for a Peugeot estate of some description.

Just pending some more details at the moment.

In southwest Scotland, riders at a downhill mountain-biking event

have been enjoying the thrills...

..and spills of the competition.

Paul Roe heads up the team of specialist medics.

Swing round a bit.

Where we get injuries, they tend to be on

the technical, downhill sections.

For obvious reasons, really,

that's where people are travelling at speed downhill.

19-year-old Dougie came off at high speed

on one of the steepest slopes of the course.

This incredible footage of the crash was captured by a spectator.

Argh!

Paul and a team of volunteers made him safe

and stretchered him off the hill.

At the treatment tent, Paul's colleagues

Pip Squires and Tony Cardwell now take over.

Dougie's in agony, and the medics need to find out why.

He's complaining of a lot of discomfort in his abdomen.

We're monitoring his vital signs at the moment,

and we're doing various tests.

Whatever it is, it's clear Dougie needs treatment - fast.

DOUGIE GROANS

-Ahhhh.

-OK, same again.

Later - while Dougie gets emergency treatment,

there's another casualty for Paul.

In Brecon, PC Geraint Skyrme is on the trail

of a distinctive-looking thief.

-Big round-looped earrings, gold, like that.

-Right.

But first, the Navy Search and Rescue Team

speed to rescue an injured walker on the top of Ben Nevis.

Carrying out rescues from Britain's most remote regions

can be difficult and dangerous.

HMS Gannet's Royal Navy Search and Rescue Team

is based in Ayrshire, on Scotland's southwest coast.

They work around the clock, covering an area of 98,000 square miles

across Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland.

These guys have seen everything,

from wounded walkers to people in trouble at sea.

It's a tough job

and the crew of a Royal Navy Sea King rescue helicopter

are trained to handle anything.

Today, off the coast of Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre,

the crew are taking part in a joint exercise with an RNLI lifeboat.

Angela Lewis is the observer on the Sea King helicopter.

CREWMAN GIVES INSTRUCTIONS

But today she's practising her winching skills,

which means being lowered onto the moving boat 50 feet below.

CREWMAN: To the right.

CREWMEN GIVE INSTRUCTIONS OVER RADIO

Touching now.

As an observer,

it's important that I can interchange with the air crewmen,

between winchman and winch operator.

We have to achieve the same skills

and our medical skills also have to be able to be swapped

on the hillside because sometimes you need

the higher proficiency medical person in the aircraft.

Halfway through the exercise, they get an emergency call.

A walker is badly injured 135 miles away on Ben Nevis,

Britain's highest peak.

Angela is immediately winched on board.

Over 100,000 people every year tackle the Ben,

all hoping to get to the top.

But over 4,000 feet of rough, mountainous terrain

inevitably means that some of them get into trouble.

The volunteer mountain rescue teams could be called out

hundreds of times a year to help injured or lost climbers.

Kinloss Rescue One Seven Seven, go ahead.

The local Lochaber mountain rescue team, or MRT, radio in an update.

RADIO: This is Belfast Coastguard Control.

Kinloss Rescue One Seven Seven, that's all copied.

Do you have any details on the casualty themselves?

One Seven Seven, that's all copied. We'll be on scene in 25 minutes.

CREWMAN: What is it?

I don't know if it's a male or a female.

Don't know anything beyond it's an ankle injury in that position.

Information on the casualty is sketchy,

so the helicopter crew will rely on news from the MRT on the ground.

Joining forces on such a remote rescue is crucial.

The MRT are on stand by.

The Sea King takes less than half an hour to travel

the 135 miles between Campbeltown and the peak of Ben Nevis.

Just as they approach the mountain, a vital update comes in.

The MRT have managed to speak to the casualty on his mobile.

'A rescue update.'

Kinloss Rescue 177. That's very helpful, many thanks.

It's the height of the tourist season

and there are scores of people on the Ben who all like waving at

choppers. So the MRT have asked the casualty to do something different.

Forming a "Y" shape is a deliberate statement that you require

assistance - it's an internationally recognised symbol. So that

should bring our eyes straight in to our casualty.

Angela gets ready to put her winching skills into practice.

But, as the helicopter fast approaches Ben Nevis,

there's a problem.

Despite the sunshine elsewhere, the mountain top is shrouded in clouds.

Bit cloudy, isn't it?

If there's cloud there, we'll struggle to get there.

We might have to go and get the MRT to head up and stabilise them.

I might do it myself.

We are very limited with our options...

If they can't see, they can't land. It could get tricky.

What Angela and the crew need is a gap in the clouds.

While thousands of summer hikers are drawn to Scotland's

mountains for recreation,

in the Brecon Beacons, the countryside proves attractive

to incomers for quite a different reason.

Dyfed Powys Police

face a constant battle as criminals travel into the countryside

to deliberately target remote buildings and isolated communities.

There's been an attempted robbery in a remote part of the county.

PC Geraint Skyrme is responding to the 999 call.

We've got a job, quite a rural job, actually, now,

an allegation of an attempted theft from a very remote outdoor activity centre

that basically links

our force border area

to South Wales Force border area.

It's a very rural location

and a route that is well-known to be used

by travelling criminals form South Wales and from Gwent.

Last year in England and Wales, over

200,000 businesses were burgled.

Commercial premises in remote areas are an easy target for thieves.

The lady has made off from the site.

We're looking for a Peugeot

estate of some description, hopefully pending some more details.

15 miles of winding country roads later,

and not a sniff of the suspects,

Geraint arrives at the isolated

Dolygaer Outdoor Centre.

He could do with a bit more to go on.

-Centre manager Andrew made the 999 call.

-Morning, how are we?

-Peugeot Estate.

-Do we know what sort of model?

-306.

-Have you got CCTV here?

-Unfortunately we haven't.

No problem. Has anything gone?

-No, but they prepared - the bags are full of equipment.

-Such as...?

Such as caving equipment, rock climbing equipment, you know,

stuff you can easy sell, really.

-And where was that?

-Up in the store.

Have they come past in the car?

They slept in the top, up there.

They spent all night up there?

When I came in this morning,

I saw the girl walking down here.

Can you describe her to me?

-Tall.

-How tall?

Five-eleven. At least as tall as me.

-Colour of hair?

-Black, curly.

Probably just below the shoulder, so quite long-ish.

Sort of age?

Age is difficult.

Mid-20s?

Big, round, looped earrings, gold like that.

I think she had a couple of studs above them like that.

She had a grey hoodie?

A grey Gap...

She had jeans on, didn't she?

Dark trousers, like.

What I'd like to do now is get out, I've got

-a description of the vehicle.

-Did you get the reg I said? Unusual reg.

-No, we haven't.

OK. It had three letters in the front, definitely, and two of them

-were

-BLEEP.

An unusual number plate. That's cos I said to her, "Is your car legal?

"Cos I'm going to phone the police."

-She was like this, "Don't do that."

-That's grand, that's great.

Oh, they had a chisel.

You've got that? OK.

Have you touched that?

Unfortunately. You didn't, did you?

I covered my...

You picked it with a cloth or something, have you?

With my jacket.

If you could leave that sterile and make sure no-one touches it.

I'll leave you in peace. A colleague is on his way.

We'll get out and see if we can find this car.

Cheers, then. We'll get someone up soon.

The description is good

and Geraint also has some detail from the Peugeot's registration.

There's no time to check the damage.

The race is on to find the suspects while the trail is fresh.

There's a car here now which is an estate.

Let's go and have a look.

It's not a Peugeot but you never know.

300 miles north of Brecon are the farms, forests

and bike tracks of Dumfries and Galloway.

And a rural emergency of another kind.

Mountain-biker Dougie lost control

and crashed at high speed during a race.

Medical team leader Paul Roe thinks Dougie's in a bad way.

DOUGIE GROANS

He's complaining of a lot of discomfort in his abdomen.

The medics suspect internal injuries.

OK, same again.

They've called an ambulance to take Dougie the 12 miles

to emergency care at Dumfries A&E.

Before any decisions are made about moving him,

the ambulance paramedic must check him out.

This is Douglas, 19. High-speed crash.

Pip saw the photographs.

He came over, he went over the handlebars

and rolled - his head went under. It did just look like a normal twist.

He complained of neck pain but I'm not sure.

He is complaining of back pain but it can't be ascertained,

really, where it is because he's got extreme pain down the mid-line.

His sats have been pretty good.

Dougie is clearly in agony.

Then shouts come in from the race track.

SHOUTING

Another rider has crashed right by the finishing line.

Medic...medic! Need a medic!

Paul makes his way to the scene but the next competitor

is hurtling down the hill, unaware of the injured rider below.

Very close!

The red flag stops the race.

but 19-year-old Ruaridh is in agony on the ground.

It looks like he's broken his leg.

Paul's now split across two serious cases.

He's keen to know what's happened to the first casualty, Dougie.

While Dougie's on his way to hospital,

Paul's second casualty, Ruaridh, is still lying where he fell.

Even so, Ruaridh refuses pain relief.

OK, well, we'll just keep it here in case you change your mind.

Paul prepares Ruaridh for what might be a very uncomfortable

lift into the stretcher.

'Ready to go in a second.'

That's grand, Carol.

One, two, three, lift.

And then he's off to the hospital as well.

Ruaridh may have broken bones in his leg.

But Dougie is in a much more serious position.

An analogy you can think of is dropping

a watermelon on the pavement.

A watermelon will split and tear

and that's essentially what's happened here.

There are 282 mountains in Scotland.

Rescuing a casualty from any one of them is a tough challenge.

And this is one of the toughest.

Winching up the wounded from Britain's highest peak.

In the Scottish Highlands, the Royal Navy Search

and Rescue Team from HMS Gannet are responding to an emergency

call from the top of Ben Nevis.

But clouds around the summit are threatening to prevent

the helicopter from landing.

Bit cloudy, isn't it?

Suddenly, experienced pilot Croc Paulet

spots a break in the weather.

The summit is chock-a-block with climbers.

But then they spot the casualty. Now the eight-tonne Sea King helicopter must land on the rocky

peak of the towering Ben.

Right, full right, half-past one, five yards.

Four, three,

two, one, easy.

Five feet to the tail wheel.

Four feet to the tail. Three feet to the tail.

Two to the left.

Two...

Tail's on.

This ominous peak has claimed many lives.

And the boulder field here on the plateau is treacherous underfoot.

Angela signals the helicopter to take off so she can deal with Ashley's ankle

without the noise and downdraft,

And with so many people milling about its safer all round

if the chopper leaves.

Ashley may well have broken his ankle.

He tried to go down the mountain with the help of his friend

but just couldn't make it.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put a splint

around it to immobilise it just so you and I don't faff about with it.

So we'll bring the aircraft back, they'll land back onto there.

I'll walk you into the aircraft and you and I will get winched up

because that's going to be the least painful way for you to do it.

I can walk if you want me to. I've got these.

Do you see how rocky it is?

Ashley's eager to make his own way.

But the best option by far is to winch him up.

We got to the top five hours ago.

He's been trying to get down without any fuss since then.

I got this far!

We're going down to Torlundy.

That's our refuel spot.

And an ambulance will meet you there.

And they will...

have you in hospital in jig time.

However, I like the fact you're slightly embarrassed about this.

A bit embarrassed.

I would have preferred to get down on my own. Bit less hassle, but...

Angela puts on a vacuum splint to protect Ashley's leg.

This is just precautionary, really.

She's in no doubt that Ashley made the right call in phoning for help.

If he was to push it and to walk down, he could...

he could fall further, he could erm,

he could be in a really slow transit down.

Hypothermia's not a real problem on a day like today

but it's a sensible move to call us, as opposed to struggle with it.

177 from mobile, that's us ready for land on, out.

At over 4,000 feet above sea level air pressure is low,

which means it's harder to winch the weight of two people off the ground.

So they're ferrying Ashley's friend off the mountain first.

Angela now gets the chance to use her recently practised

winching skills.

The winch was very straightforward.

The aircraft came into the position that we were...

that we were waiting, I secured the casualty into two strops,

into a double lift strop and I was in a harness myself

and I was able to come up with the casualty.

Once on board, it takes just five minutes to airlift Ashley across

the peaks to a waiting ambulance at Torlundy, near Fort William.

It's another successful rescue from the Ben.

Rural Britain doesn't just attract people in search of adventure.

Here in the Brecon Beacons, the police are dealing with

increasing levels of criminal activity on their pastoral patch.

PC Geraint Skyrme has been called to an isolated outdoor activity centre.

There's been an attempted robbery

and Geraint's hoping to catch the criminals.

-Mid to late, twenties. Something like that maybe.

-OK.

21, 23, 24. Something like around that.

-Not 30 or something.

-Anything...?

-Yeah, big, long...

-big, round, looped earrings, gold like that.

-Right.

Armed with a full description of a woman, her boyfriend and the car

they're driving, Geraint and his colleagues are hot on their trail.

-RADIO BEEPS

-Yeah, looks like we're looking for a Peugeot 306.

The lady in question is white...

..in her mid 20s.

Are you heading to the centre, are you?

No, I've erm...

I drew a blank as well on that.

The would-be thieves fled empty-handed but they almost got

away with possibly thousands of pounds worth of expensive kit.

The information that we obtained from the IP -

the injured party - was basically that it...

everything was in a preparatory state.

It didn't appear that anything had gone

but it was certainly in the process of going when they got disturbed.

So, as we knew nothing had gone,

it was just a case of then, let's get the descriptions as quick as we can

and let's get out there and find these individuals who have fled from the scene.

Geraint's colleagues in the Roads Police Unit have

passed on some new information.

They've done a... They've done sort of a few checks,

utilising our different intelligence systems

and they've managed to trace the Peugeot

down to a local village

about 18 to 20 miles away from where this incident occurred this morning.

So my colleague's obviously going down there now to see if he can find anything...

off that person.

The search has widened and is likely to take them

off their regular patch.

Our force border, obviously taps onto another force border,

so what we tend to do is, quite often patrol between the borders

and we do actually run special roads policing operations to target

travelling criminals that utilise the borders.

Cos, believe it or not, a lot of people actually think that...

it's much like the States.

We come to a force border and that we've got to stop.

There's a car just in by here now which is an estate.

Let's just go and have a look.

It's not a Peugeot but you never know.

It's a newish car. He'd be able to identify that.

But there we are, you never know, do you?

Yeah, that is a classic. You wouldn't want to hit that, would you?

Basically, obviously we've bottomed out coming into South Wales' patch

now and there's been no signs in the lay-bys or anything of that vehicle.

After another hour-and-a-half of fruitless searching,

Geraint gets disappointing news.

The earlier lead they had on a Peugeot

registered to a woman in a village just 20 miles away

has been ruled out.

I've just been in touch with a colleague, the vehicle is actually in Abergavenny with the lady's

husband and he's at their daughter's premises.

And been fitting a kitchen there all day and hasn't been anywhere near...

..the site of the attempt theft so erm,

it's back to the drawing board now, unfortunately.

As far as Geraint's concerned, they can run but they can't hide.

We've got descriptions of these people, we've got

partial index of the vehicle from the scene.

They won't have got away with what's happened up there.

We are aware of the description now of the female

and we have a description of the car.

Clearly, if this vehicle is seen in the vicinity or

anywhere near that vicinity again, it will be subject of a search.

Back in Dumfries and Galloway, one of the summer season's mountain

biking fixtures has produced some nasty tumbles.

But the afternoon has also seen two more serious accidents.

Medical team leader

Paul Roe found himself dealing with both casualties at the same time.

We will treat approximately 10% of the competitors that are here

to compete over the weekend.

19-year-old Dougie somersaulted off his bike at high speed

on a particularly steep section of the course.

While rider Ruaridh came off his bike at the finishing line.

-RADIO:

-'That's grand, Carol.'

Both were taken by ambulance

to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.

X-rays showed Ruaridh had no broken bones.

But for Dougie, it was much more serious.

It's a very significant injury.

Tests showed the impact of the fall had ruptured his liver.

A&E doctor Rory Hodge explains.

This is Douglas's CT scan of his abdomen and pelvis.

You can see his kidneys here, left and right kidney. This is his spine.

And this structure here is his liver.

Erm...

And what we can see is a laceration,

or basically a tear in his liver here

and that would fit with having blunt trauma to his abdomen.

The analogy you could think of is...

dropping a watermelon on the pavement.

The watermelon will split and tear, erm...

And that's essentially what's happened here.

After a night in hospital, Dougie was transferred to a specialist

unit in Edinburgh, where he spent the next week.

He almost died.

Oooh!

All I can remember is, I kind of went to the right and the bar spun -

well, went round, sorry.

And I can't really remember much after that.

I can remember tumbling and the next thing was lying face down.

Oooh!

I remember being on my knees and basically, my shoulders and

I put my hands in the ground to try and shove myself up.

And it was just the pain that went through my stomach

and my upper body was just... I couldn't take it.

I just hit the ground.

It seemed like I was lying there for ages on my own.

I can remember just lying, I was really uncomfortable

but every time I moved it was sore.

Erm, it was actually one of my friend's voices that I heard first

and it was him that got there first and then the paramedics and that arrived.

I can remember getting carried down a few bits, then...

..getting in the tent.

And they were basically just...

trying to find out what was actually wrong with me,

where the pain was coming from.

Basically, I was millimetres from not being sitting here now.

I must have caught the bars on the way over on my stomach

and it was millimetres from going through the main...

main blood vessel in your liver.

And I if I had caught that,

I probably wouldn't have made it to the bottom of the hill.

I think that'll be my last race.

I've put my parents and my girlfriend and my friends and that

through a lot in the past week, as well as myself, so...

I think we'll calm it down for a while.

It's been a busy time for the emergency services

in Britain's rural areas.

Mountain biker Dougie is a man of his word.

He's planning to sell his wheels and stop riding in races

but martial them instead.

X-rays revealed plucky walker Ashley HAD broken his heel.

He's recovering well and hopes to be back walking and rock climbing soon.

And in Wales, the police are still on the lookout for their suspects

but a certain brown cow remains firmly behind bars.

And you thought it was quiet in the countryside.