Cop lay next to hypothermic man in daring water rescue
He dragged a trapped driver from his part-submerged truck and lay next to him for warmth in bitterly cold wind and rain.
Manawatu¯ Senior Constable Ross Andrew, now retired, was on his way to Dannevirke when he came across a truck crash in the Manawatu¯ Gorge on July 8, 2016.
‘‘It all but happened in front of me. I came around the corner and there was a big cloud of white stuff and I thought it was whipped up water, but it was milk powder.’’
This week he earned a Police Association Bravery Award.
On that miserable, windy day a truck and trailer unit had careened through a barrier rail on the edge of the road, plummeting 50 metres down the ravine and into the turbulent Manawatu¯ River.
The truck’s partly-crushed cab quickly filled, surrounding its occupants – the driver and a female passenger – with icy water.
Andrew did not hesitate. Picking his way carefully down the steep, unstable bank, he was able to traverse the final 10m with the help of a rope, thrown down by a member of the public.
He waded into the river, first helping the truck’s passenger to the bank and giving her his stabproof vest for warmth.
The seriously injured driver was not quite so straightforward. ‘‘He was sort of wedged. He had managed to get his head out of the water and then I helped him out, it wasn’t easy.’’
Hypothermia was setting in for the truckie, but his injuries meant he could not be moved very far. Instead, Andrew managed to pull him on to the top of the cab, where he lay next to him to help shelter him from the awful weather.
The Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter airlifted the truckie to safety an hour later.
Kaitaia-based Constable Darren Critchley was also given an award for rescuing a man and a woman from the surf off Ninety Mile Beach. The woman was unable to be resuscitated.
"It all but happened in front of me . . . There was a big cloud of white stuff."
Senior Constable Ross Andrew