A Penticton, B.C., road maintenance worker suffered extreme exposure after being stuck outdoors throughout Tuesday night and well into the next morning, Penticton Search and Rescue said.
Mounties called the search and rescue team in for help at 7:20 a.m Wednesday after the road maintenance employee was reported missing in the Chute Lake Road area. He’d last been heard from at 10 p.m. the night before.
Penticton SAR manager Mark Pfeiffer centred the search on Chute Lake where the road grader was located.
Shortly before 10 a.m. and approximately one kilometre from where the grader on Chute Lake Road was found, police located tracks off the roadway and upon investigation found the worker 80 feet down an embankment, Randy Brown, manager of Penticton Search and Rescue, said in a press release.
The worker had been outside for over 10 hours and was suffering from severe exposure.
“SAR members began performing emergency medical aid for exposure, and requested that the subject be evacuated via air due to the serious condition of the subject and steep terrain where the subject was located,” Brown said.
A long-line evacuation of the man was initiated and he was transferred to BC Ambulance and transported to Penticton General Hospital for treatment.
The worker’s condition is unknown at this time.