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« Slow down |
THREE MEMBERS of Citizens on Patrol were shaking their fingers an electronic bulletin board which used laser technology to let
at drivers on Hwyi6 near the chamber of commerce building last drivers know how fast they were going. Citizens on Patrol keeps an
week. Keith Trask, left, Barb Hazard and Winston Gidney were by eye out for suspicious activity and will call police if needed,
Man ponders legal action
Ambulance goes to wrong place
A KITIMAT RESIDENT is considering legal
action after a foul up resulted in a provincial
ambulance being sent to the wrong location
June 7.
David Moloney’s wife, Arlene, suffered a
heart attack at the Kitimat airpark 10 miles
north of that city but an ambulance was sent
from Terrace to the Terrace-Kitimat aixport in-
slead,
When the mistake was corrected, an am-
bulance from Kitimat did reach Arlene Moloney
and she was taken to the Kitimat hospital but
Was pronounced dead on arrival.
“I'm going.to get some advice from my law-
yer,’ said Dave Moloney last Wednesday.
The foul-up occurred when the centralized
provincial ambulance dispatch office located in
Kamloops contacted the wrong ambulance sta-
tion and sent a unit to the wrong place, says
Kitimat coroner Paul Monaghan.
’ According to provincial ambulance service in-
formation supplied to Monaghan, Moloney
called the ambulance service from a payphone
at the Kitimat airpark at 9:30 p.m. June 7, just
feet from where his wife had collapsed,
Monaghan said Moloney was clear about his
location, but that the centralized dispatch office
instead called the Terrace ambulance station
and directed a unit to ‘‘an unconscious collapse
at the airport parking lot.”*
}t was not until the Terrace ambulance got to
the Terrace-Kitimat airport and found no one,
that the Kamloops dispatch office realized the
error, said Monaghan. '
A Kitimat ambulance was then sent to the
Kitimat airpark, arriving at 9:41 p.m.
“There appears to have been a miscom-
munication between the 911 caller and the dis-
patcher as to the location of the incident,” said
Bob Pearce, communications manager for the
B.C. Ambulance Service in Victoria.
While acknowledging that the incident was
unfortunate, Pearce said there was no indication
the delay caused Arlene Moloney’s death.
But Debbie Taylor, Moloney’s daughter, said
Wednesday there was no question that the B.C.
Ambulance Service erred,
“My father was very specific, obviously it
was the dispatcher who messed up,’’ said
Taylor.
Taylor, who has transcripts of the phone con- .
versation between her father and the dispatch
centre, said her father did tell the dispatcher he
had a hearing problem and asked the dispatcher
to speak up. :
The dispatcher did ask and Moloney did con-
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firm that he was calling from a parking lot at the
airpark,
The dispatcher then asked Moloney one more
time ‘to confirm you're at the Kitimat-Terrace
airport parking Iot,” Taylor said in reading
from the transcript.
Her father, frustrated and wanting to get off
the phone and back to his wife, replied “‘right’’,
said Taylor.
She believes the problem could be solved by
establishing a locatized ambulance service.
“If we could make a difference for just one
other person, that would be awesome,’’ she
said. .
Dave Moloney is left wondering if the delay
caused his wife’s death.
‘They say there is the possibility that she
could have died anyway. But there is the pos-
sibility that she could have lived too. You never
know.”
Monaghan said calling the Kitimat ambulance .
station right away would have resulted in a
faster response by 20 minutes,
He said sending service to the wrong location
is conceivable considering the Kamloops dis-
patch centre is unfamiliar with the area.
*{ can see how it happened,’’ Monaghan said.
The Torrace Standard, Wednesday, July 1, 1998 - A3
News In Brief
Speeders Beware
HEADS UP on long weekends this summer as the At-
torney General Ujjal Dosanjh announced B.C.’s annual
summer speed awareness campaign last Wednesday.
RCMP are being asked to use hand-held laser tech-
nology to catch speeders, tailgaiters and other ag-
presssive drivers on high-crash localions June 26 to
July 5.
_ Nope. Not here
A TASK FORCE travelling the province to hear what
people think about proposed bank mergers is visiting
everywhere except northwestern B.C,
The closest the hearings, struck under orders of small
business minister Ian Waddell, are coming to the north-
west is Prince George. They begin in Dawson Creek
July 6, then heading south to Prince George, Kelowna,
Cranbrook, Port Alberni, Victoria and Vancouver.
Small business ministry spokesman Rick Stevens
said. there were no plans to schedule a hearing in the
northwest. But he did encourage people to write, phone
or send their opinions via email,
Proposed mergers between the Bank of Montreal and
the Royal Bank and the T-D Bank and the Canadian
Bank of Commerce have sparked worries about branch
closures, layoffs and bank fee increases.
Your money first, please
THE KITIMAT-STIKINE regional board wants resi-
dents of Elsworth Brothers Camp near Meziadin Lake
to apply for rezoning before they ask for money or
phone services.
A 149-signature petition was delivered to the board
asking for help in obtaining phone service from BC
Tel. But the camp is zoned as temporary heavy-
industrial even thavgh people have lived in the com-
munity for approximately 11 years.
Elsworth camp houses about 200 people year-round
but it is considered private land and board members are
hesitant to provide public money.
The board will write a letter to BC Tel asking it to
find other ways to provide phone service there,
Vehicie tumbles off cliff
A STOLEN vehicle left the road and rolled into a
densely wooded area around 1 a.m. last Thursday on
Kalum Street near Munthe Avenue.
RCMP and Terrace Fire and Rescue responded to -
find the vehicle abandoned. Four young occupants
were later identified and treated for minor injuries.
Police are investigating the incident but say driver in-
experience and excessive speed, not alcohol, were the
factors in the accident.
Marijuana arrests made
A SEARCH by the Terrace RCMP drug section of a
home on Kleanza Drive last Thursday resulted in the
seizure of approximately $13,000 to $15,000 worth of
Marijuana and the arrest of two adults. mG
‘The pair will appear in court Aug. 8. Police say the
hydroponics operation is considered to be small.
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