4X4 RESCUE RESPONSE

At times of emergency when the 999 services can’t access difficult terrain, volunteers like the Midland Rover Owners Club’s 4x4 Response Group come to the rescue

Picture the scene: a train has derailed in the middle of the Warwickshire countryside. It’s a dark, wet, winter’s night and the rescue services have a real problem transporting hundreds of cold and shocked passengers across muddy farmland to emergency rest centres that have been set up by the local council.

This is where the Midlands Rover Owners Club’s 4x4 Response Group comes to the rescue. The Local Authority Resilience Department has contacted the MROC 4x4 Response Group’s administrator, who in turn called out the group’s volunteers, who rush to the scene in a fleet of go-anywhere Defenders and Discoverys. In no time at all, they have loaded up with passengers, engaged diff locks and began the task of ferrying them to the rest centre at a village hall a few miles away.

In truth, this is only a practice run, which is staged annually by the local authority’s Resilience Department to test the effectiveness of the response of everybody involved in dealing with potential disasters. But it means they are prepared for anything that fate and bad weather can throw at them. The ability of Land Rovers to get to places normal emergency services vehicles can’t reach is well recognised to the extent that MORC 4x4 Response Group members are always on standby and ready to leap into action whenever extreme weather, like heavy snow storms, are forecast.

The most recent exercise – that mocked-up train derailment – was staged near Solihull. Passengers were evacuated from the train by Fire & Rescue, with casualties being treated by the Ambulance Service. The remaining, uninjured passengers were transported from the scene to the rest centre by the MROC volunteers’ Land Rovers.

On the day all our Land Rovers assembled at the designated rendezvous point and we ferried the remaining uninjured passengers from the scene to the rest centre. If it had been a real situation the Land Rovers would have been invaluable. The 4x4 and passenger-carrying capabilities of the Defender 110 Station Wagons and Discoverys with seven seats, along with the off-road, limited traction and adverse weather driving training that members of the 4x4 Response Group have undergone meant we successfully transported thosee passengers safely and effectively to the rest centre.

In a previous exercise we faced a scenario involving an aircraft being forced to land at an unscheduled airport due to a passenger related incident. This was in essence a similar use of the 4x4 Response Group as the train derailment and involved the transportation of passengers from the scene to terminal buildings designated as the rest centres. Had this been a real-life incident, if would very likely be in the middle of farm or moorland and the use of 4x4 vehicles would be essential.

Snow has always been by far the biggest cause for MROC 4x4 Response to be brought into action. We have transported doctor and nurses for them to give care and treatment to their patients when road conditions made travelling very difficult indeed.

Recently we were put on standby for a possible evacuation due to rising flood water, but we were stood down when the waters receded. But whatever the emergency, members of MORC 4x4 Response Group and our Land Rovers will be ready to respond and assist when needed.