HERO ANGLER IN MOUNTAIN RESCUE DRAMA
‘I feared they had both been killed’
A QUICK-thinking angler used his sleeping bag to save the lives of two friends after their vehicle plummeted down a 200ft rock face.
Keen carper Craig Taylor said he thought his friends were dead after their 4x4 was involved in an accident he likened to ‘something you’d see in a James Bond film’.
The site manager from Birmingham said the seven-hour ordeal in the Brecon Beacons began after the off-roading trip saw one of two vehicles that had taken a wrong turn in a blizzard tumble through a fence and down the sheer drop.
With just minutes to react, Craig took the fleece duvets from his Nash sleeping bag and made his way down to where his friends had been thrown from the vehicle and been badly hurt. A third male received less serious injuries and was able to make his way to safety.
Craig insulated his stricken friends from the sub-zero temperatures before a 50-man rescue team were deployed to complete the rescue mission.
“I really thought both of them were dead. You can’t fall that far and survive, it was like something you’d see in a James Bond film,” he said. “I grabbed the duvet layers and started climbing down.
“I wrapped the peachskin layers all around their legs and lay on top of both of them to try to keep them warm. I was speaking to the emergency services and requesting an air ambulance.”
On the phone for almost three hours, Craig began to doubt they would be rescued, but his strength and determination ensured he kept the casualties awake. They were both airlifted to hospital and have since been discharged.
“They had been there around three hours before we got to the scene, it was sub-zero and we had the first snow of the winter,” said Mark Jones, deputy team leader of Brecon Mountain Rescue.
“Craig had made his way down into a difficult area following the route the vehicle had taken, and did what we would recommend, left the casualties where they were and insulated them from the cold using the blankets he had to protect their lives.”
Nash Tackle boss Kevin Nash described Craig’s efforts as ‘brave and commendable’.
“It’s a testimony to the efforts we go to making the highest quality products, the result being that lives were saved,” Kevin added. “We’ve had Titans documented as saving lives, now our Sleep System duvets have the same accolade.”
Nash Tackle has also made a donation to Brecon Mountain Rescue, which relies on charitable gifts from the public and requires £40,000 per year to cover operational costs.