RCMP finds missing driver using UAV
In May, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported on a successful mission to locate an injured driver using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
In May, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported on a successful mission to locate an injured driver using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
On 9 May at 00:20 hrs, Saskatoon RCMP received a call of a single vehicle rollover on Highway 5 about five kilometres (three miles) east of St Denis, Saskatchewan. The RCMP, along with St Denis and Vonda Fire Rescue and emergency medical services staff from MD Ambulance, responded to the scene. Upon arrival, emergency responders could not locate the vehicle’s occupants. The examination of the scene indicated that at least one person had been in the vehicle and was injured. A ground search was conducted within 200 m (660 ft) of the scene, but searchers were unable to locate anyone.
STARS Air Ambulance was contacted and agreed to attend with their night vision goggles to see if they could detect and locate the injured person. STARS conducted an initial search of the 1,000 m (0.6 miles) surrounding the rollover, but were unable to locate anyone.
At 01:20 hrs, members from Saskatoon RCMP contacted Cpl Doug Green, a forensic collision reconstuctionist, requesting he attend with the Dragan Flyer X4-ES equipped with a forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera. Cpl Green arrived at 01:55 hrs and discussed the situation with the on scene member.
At 02:10 hours, the driver of the vehicle, a 25-year-old male, called 911 from his cell phone. He indicated he was cold, did not know where he was and could give no directions to his location. He was only dressed in T-shirt (no jacket), pants and had lost his shoes. Temperatures at the time were near freezing.
With the help of SaskTel, a GPS location of the driver’s cell phone was obtained. Cpl Green and Saskatoon RCMP established communication with the STARS Air Ambulance overhead and gave them the GPS co-ordinates. Cpl Green then entered the co-ordinates into his GPS and drove to the location. Cpl Green and STARS then went to the new location which was in a field two miles (three kilometres) south of the rollover. Cpl Green attempted to call to the driver over the loud hailer and used the siren to direct him towards his location, but the driver did not respond to any of these attempts to contact him. STARS continued to search the area with their night vision and search light. Cpl Green was joined in the search by several members of the Vonda Fire Department.
At 03:00 hrs, Cpl Green launched the Dragan Flyer X4-ES UAV. Once the UAV was in the air, a search was initiated in the area of the last known location of the driver and three heat signatures showed up on the FLIR screen. Cpl Green directed Vonda Fire Department members towards the first heat signature located in the trees 200 m (660 ft) from the last known GPS location. Fire/rescue members located the driver at this first location, curled up in a ball at the base of a tree next to a snow bank. He was unresponsive and was quickly brought out to the road and placed in an ambulance for transport to a hospital in Saskatoon.
The RCMP stated that without the UAV and FLIR, searchers would not have been able to locate the driver until daylight.