Perthshire man airlifted to hospital as ambulance gets stuck in snow

Jan 8 2010 by Katy Gordon, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A STRICKEN Perthshire man was airlifted to hospital after the ambulance he called got stuck in the snow.

Charlie Lennon (64) phoned the emergency services after suffering severe chest and arm pains while at home near Muthill.

He told the PA yesterday: “My friend Donald Hood came to help me, and he phoned for an ambulance.

“But we found out that the vehicle had got stuck in the snow and couldn’t reach the house, so instead they had to send an air ambulance from Glasgow.”

A local farmer managed to reach the ambulance and transport paramedics to Mr Lennon.

“It must have been an hour we were waiting for the helicopter, on top of the delays with the original emergency services getting stuck,” said Charlie, who is worried there could be a repeat incident.

“That was last week and the roads are still the same now,” he groaned.

Mr Lennon was flown to Ninewells, where he was told the pains were an angina attack.

Mr Hood, who is also the chairman of Muthill Community Council, told the PA that he has regularly helped push stuck cars.

“The back roads are horrendous,” he said yesterday. “I’ve been helping cars get out and guys with 4x4s and tractors have been great.”

And he accused Perth and Kinross Council of missing its big chance to work on the rural roads.

“There were opportunities when the snow was beginning to thaw, but when I contacted the council they said they didn’t have the manpower and they were concentrating on priority roads,” Mr Hood revealed.

“It was especially infuriating to see the streets in Crieff being cleared by JCBs when the back roads weren’t being touched.”

Yesterday, council leader Ian Miller defended the response, insisting the local authority had been “well prepared” to deal with some of the worst conditions in 30 years.

“Under our winter maintenance programme the council prioritises its resources to appropriately target main roads and footways,” he declared.

“During the recent adverse weather conditions our focus has been on gritting 910km of priority routes to ensure they are passable.

“This work has continued consistently due to the council and Tayside Contracts working extended shifts, seven days of the week, including the festive holiday. Priority footways were also checked and gritted where required.”

Mr Miller said that gritting crews had been working 18 hours a day

“As of today no roads are closed in Perth and Kinross,” he said. “Effective planning also means the council has sufficient supplies of grit.”