Gobsmacked & dumbfounded onlookers recounted how a housing saleswoman tried to prevent an air ambulance from landing in order to render life-saving assistance to a patient, stating: “you can’t park here”.
The HEMs chopper landed on a building site where a new development is being constructed in Leamington Spa, Warks (UK) on Sunday.
The HEMs crew had been requested by Medics who were trying to save the life of a male who had collapsed whilst at home.
But eyewitnesses stated that a member of staff, working for developers Persimmon Homes, attempted to “obstruct” the HEMs crew once they had landed.
And to make matters even worse, Persimmon Homes has since backed their member of staff, stating that she had “health & safety” concerns about the HEMs helicopter being on the site.
Did she not realise, that the Pilot of the HEMs helicopter, being infinitely better trained to understand the risks posed to/by his/her aircraft, is far more qualified to undertake a ‘risk assessment’ to the crew of the helicopter and its surroundings, than a jumped up Health & Safety nut?
A local resident, a Mr Michael Bunting, 32, watched the ridiculous encounter unfold and said that he found the Persimmons’ employees behaviour “appalling”.
Mr Bunting told local press:
“These guys are professional pilots.
“They take everything into account when landing.
“It’s second nature to them.
“For a saleswoman to obstruct the crew getting to the emergency is appalling.
“And when the crew couldn’t get through the fencing she told the crew not to pull it out.”
“It took myself and a few other bystanders to lift the fence to get the crew through.
“At this point she is still giving the crew hassle about where they have landed.
“The saleswoman was telling them, ‘you can’t come through here’, so we lifted the fence and she was constantly on them, ‘you can’t park there, who do you think you are?’
“I said, ‘if that was a loved one of yours, you’d want every second to count.’
“I just found it so appalling that a saleswoman was so rude and I understand the safety measures but these guys are trained, it’s their job.
“The pilot circled the area twice before he landed, he knows what he is doing.”
Persimmon responded to the incident, and their Central region director Neil Williams said: “Health and safety is of paramount importance on all of our sites and we take it very seriously.
“At no point would any of our staff obstruct the emergency services, however, it is critical that our staff raise any concerns for public safety.
“The air ambulance landed on a working construction site that was closed to the public and while we understand that was necessary to access the patient our staff observed that the landing area, which was a locked off area, contained hazardous materials that needed to be re-secured in order to prevent public access or any danger to existing residents.”
I am fairly sure, that had it been a family member of the Persimmon employee who needed the life-saving help of HEMs, then she would have been quite happy for the Helicopter to land in a nuclear power plant if it meant that her family member survived.
Funny that. Double standards and a complete lack of any common sense and empathy springs to mind.
Written by ‘Cop(ex)’. A former member of the Armed Forces, Metropolitan Police and RNLI who is also a regular contributor to our satirical emergency services and armed forces related digital magazine, aptly named ‘S__ts & Giggles’.
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As a former heli flight medic and now a H&S ‘practitioner’ I do have some sympathy for her situation, given local councils and the HSE attitude’s and willingness to pursue a prosecution should a person, a child especially, enter a site that should be secure against unauthorised entry and get injured or killed. Having made such a public protest on behalf of the company, and if she’s the ‘responsible person’ herself, to the crew, then they have some limited protection should an unauthorised person get hurt as a result of entering the site through any opening made by the crew or the public assisting them. Any builders on site would usually assist the crew anyway they can in my experience, it might be one of them next time, but the reported story seems to indicate there were few if any there, leaving her with a potentially insecure site and no one or way to secure it.
What a load of shit if it was HER MOTHER OR CHILD would she still put up a fuss NO I don’t think so
It’s all gone mad everything has to be Politically Correct sod anybody that might be suffering or dying.
All I can say is I’m glad I wasn’t there as I think I would be in serious trouble!!