Mountain rescue volunteer badly injured during mission to help Covid rule-breaker

Red Screes above Ambleside with mist from a temperature inversion, Lake District, UK, looking towards Harter Fell.
Red Screes above Ambleside with mist from a temperature inversion, Lake District, UK, looking towards Harter Fell.

A member of Cumbria's mountain rescue team has been left with "life-changing injuries" after falling 500ft while trying to help a camper who was breaching Covid-19 rules.

The 60-year-old was part of rescue team called out in the early hours of Saturday morning to help a 47-year-old man who was experiencing chest pains while camping on the slopes above the Kirkstone Pass between Patterdale and Ambleside.

Two men, who had travelled to the Lake District from Leicester and Liverpool, have been fined £200 each.

Mountain Rescue team leader Mike Rippon told the BBC that this was a "truly avoidable accident" and said despite warnings for the public not to travel it was "disappointing" that people continued to do so.

Of his injured colleague, he added: "He's in good spirits, probably unaware of the operations that will be required to improve his condition."

The rescue volunteer was airlifted to the Royal Preston Hospital where he was found to have facial fractures and spinal injuries. The camper was taken to Carlisle Infirmary but was later discharged.

Cumbria Police's Assistant Chief Constable Andy Slattery said the £200 fines issued to the men who had travelled to the area was the "only legal penalty available" to them. "I'm sure they are extremely remorseful for their actions," he added.

"Set Covid aside, anybody who ventures up in the fells can have an accident and anybody who has accident can't foresee what was likely happen to the mountain rescue.

"That doesn't lessen the anger and the frustration that people feel about this but they had no way of knowing that would happen.

"This isn't the time to be taking risks."

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