A man and a woman out for a ride on their quad ATVs south of Nanaimo ended up with a helicopter flight to Victoria on the weekend.
Cranberry Volunteer Fire Department, B.C. Ambulance and Nanaimo Search and Rescue responded to the wilderness behind McKay Lake, about 15 kilometres south of Nanaimo, at about 3 p.m. Sunday when the man and a woman in their late 20s were injured after both their ATVs flipped over.
“It was way, way up past McKay Lake, out of my area,” said Ron Gueulette, Cranberry Volunteer Fire Department chief, who called in Nanaimo Search and Rescue crews to assist with rescuing the victims.
Gueulette said the accidents happened in a deep ravine and the quads flipped or rolled over when the riders attempted to get the vehicles out of the ravine.
“It was a man and a woman. They were riding together … I think they tried to come out the ravine and the quads flipped. I think one rolled and one flipped,” he said.
Gueulette said he drove a B.C. Ambulance Service crew up to the accident site in his truck and then called in a Nanaimo Search and Rescue team, which had the specialized training to retrieve the victims in the steep terrain.
He said both riders were flown to hospital in Victoria, the woman for a head injury and the man for a neck injury and both had been released from hospital Monday.