Team send SOS for wrecks

Carterton firefighters are desperate for car wrecks for training a Road Crash Rescue Challenge team.

Senior station officer Richard Epplett said a half dozen of the 26 volunteer firefighters are involved with the team and aim to compete at the Region 1 & 2 Road Crash Rescue Challenge at Silverdale in November.

He said a single wreck had been donated so far but the newly-formed team want at least a dozen vehicles from which dummies would be cut free in training.

"We need as many cars as we can get. If it's got wheels and can be moved, we're happy to pick it up.

"We can even take it to the wreckers for them after we cut it up and give them the money or they can donate it to the team."

Carterton deputy fire chief Bryan Styles had offered his work yard as a training area, Mr Epplett said, and Wairarapa Scrap Metals had promised to provide at least one vehicle.

Farmers Transport Company had made a similar pledge.

"I used to go round and look up driveways and get wrecks that way but those days are gone. As soon as wrecks got some value, they got harder to find. They disappeared."

Mr Epplett said the team would be training in freeing victims from vehicles using hydraulic cutting gear and the "Jaws of Life", vehicle stabilisation and victim treatment.

He said the team had a lot to live up to with Carterton firefighters having been national waterway champions since 2007 before losing the title this year at the UFBA National Waterway Challenge in Cromwell.

The contest training and competitions help to improve the life-saving skills of the volunteers.

"When you look in the back of the truck and see four or five competition guys, you know without a doubt they have all the right skills because of that extra training."

Anybody wanting to donate a car wreck can call Richard Epplett at 06 379 6548.