KEY POINTS:
A Department of Conservation (DoC) ranger has been accused of ignoring the pleas of a seriously injured man who was hurt after an accident in the Central Otago high country.
Adrian Cope, 19, was a front-seat passenger in one of two four-wheel-drive vehicles being driven around Mavora Lakes, between Lakes Te Anau and Wakatipu, on Saturday, the Southland Times reported.
He suffered serious neck injuries after the vehicle he was in rolled during an attempt to drive it up a hill.
Mr Cope escaped the vehicle, but was concerned about his sore neck, so he and friend Tim Herrick left in the second vehicle to find help at a nearby DoC station.
The pair reached the ranger's caravan after about 20 minutes driving slowly on bumpy terrain and alerted the ranger to the accident.
They asked the ranger to contact emergency services to get help for Mr Cope.
"Before he was going to do it he [the ranger] said he wanted to know where we were so to the best of my knowledge I explained," Mr Herrick said.
"... he said that he knew the exact hill and that no one's supposed to go up it.
"He went on to say that anything that's wrong with Adrian is his own doing, his fault. I asked him again 'are you going to contact a helicopter or an ambulance?' and he said 'I don't know why I should'."
The pair left the ranger and drove over bumpy terrain for a further 20 minutes to get cellphone coverage to call for help themselves.
They rang a medic at Te Anau, and were told the ranger had already called, and that a helicopter was on its way.
Mr Cope was admitted to Southland Hospital and a CAT scan revealed his sixth vertebrae had broken into three pieces.
Mr Cope's mother Heather said their concern was because they did not know whether the ranger had called for help, her son's injury could have been made worse by continuing to travel in the truck.
She has laid a complaint with DoC and she hoped the ranger would apologise for his actions and that DoC would look at fencing off or sign-posting the area where the incident occurred.
DoC area manager Reg Kemper said he had spoken to Mrs Cope and was investigating the allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
The ranger had initiated a 111 call through the DoC radio system at the request of Mr Cope and Mr Herrick, Mr Kemper said.
It may have been inappropriate vehicle use that caused the accident but that had not been confirmed and police were investigating, he said.
- NZPA
