Victims waited beside dead bodies in 111 delay

Two seriously injured women waited 35 minutes for help after a car crash - even though an ambulance station was just eight minutes' drive away.

An inquiry has been launched after the ambulance dispatcher sent a crew from Ngatea, 61km away, while an ambulance just 11km away was overlooked.

Gavin Beadle, 22, and Brett Hancock, 20, both from Huntly, were killed when their car crashed on Keith Rd, near Te Kauwhata, last weekend. Mandy Bell, 21, and Brett's sister Julie, 22, were seriously injured.

The accident turned into an agonising wait as locals did what they could for the victims.

Baron de Thierry made the 111 call at 10.18pm, expecting the ambulance to come from Te Kauwhata, eight minutes away. His neighbour "Stretch" Whitehead also helped. They felt for the men's pulses - Mr Whitehead is trained in first aid - but found nothing.

Mr de Thierry said he told the dispatcher of the exact location. "I told her Waerenga. I said Te Kauwhata and you head 11km out. She asked if there were any landmarks. I said there was a garage and she said 'there's no garage on my map'. Then she said there was one on the way."

Although the two men were already dead, "for the two girls, it would have made a difference".

Said Mr Whitehead: "It felt like forever. I talked to Mandy, walked around picking up wallets and money off the road, then waited."

The fire service arrived at 10.30pm, coming from its base opposite the Te Kauwhata St John ambulance station. Then the police arrived and told the local men to go home and wait.

"If anything is at fault, it's the 111 system," said Mr Whitehead. "It's an eight-minute drive from Te Kauwhata. And for them to not even know where Waerenga was ... "

Mr de Thierry still refused to believe the ambulance that came to help had come from Ngatea - until the Te Kauwhata crew arrived a few minutes later. "Ngatea? It's crazy when you know there's one less than 10 minutes away."

None of this was new to Jim Darlow, who lives nearby. The Waerenga man accidentally struck his 6-year-old daughter while working with a digger at home. Flung 6m, she sustained a 12cm skull fracture.

He called 111 and waited an hour and 40 minutes. He was told last week a St John investigator from Wellington would interview him while looking into the Keith Rd case.

While on the phone he was told ambulances from Huntly, Ngatea and even Auckland were trying to find the house. He gave the street address and his wife waited on the main road.

Mr Darlow said the wait was awful, his daughter lying in his arms and growing weaker by the minute.

"I thought I had killed her. Her eyes were open but said she couldn't see me [and] she couldn't hear me. I was holding her in my arms and she was fading away. She was talking to me and crying and she knew she was going and she was telling me that. It was very, very hard."

In a written statement, St John northern communications centre manager Sara Lewis said the service reacted promptly to the car crash, but sent the wrong ambulance.

She said: "We located Keith Rd on our mapping system and in accordance with it, responded the Ngatea ambulance. However, it transpired there was a closer ambulance, at Te Kauwhata, which also responded.

"We acknowledge there was a delay initiating this response."

Ms Lewis said it took the ambulance service 35 minutes to reach the crash site, and both injured women were taken to hospital.

"This tragic accident on Keith Rd affects everyone involved, including St John ambulance crews, call takers and dispatchers who are caring people working for their community."

She said St John attended more than 240,000 emergency calls a year.

National communication centre manager Tony Blaber said the service was about to change its system, expanding main centres while closing smaller centres. Staff would receive more specialised training on local areas and new software would reduce the chances of accidents becoming lost. "People do have confidence in our ambulance service and I fully expect that confidence will continue."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY