Mission Number - 10216

Date - 2nd December 1999

Aircrew - Pilot: Captain Paul Longden, Paramedics: Carlton Real & Phil Nelson

A 999 call by a member of the public on a mobile phone from a remote moor land spot near the Jamaica Inn had alerted the Westcountry Ambulance Service's Central Control Room.

The report was that a driver heading west bound on the A30 1 mile from the Jamaica Inn turning had left the road and dropped down a steep back approximately 30ft.

The Cornwall Air Ambulance were airborne and arrived on the scene within 10 minutes. Also 2 road ambulances had been dispatched.

The car had actually left the road, gone down a 30ft embankment, ploughed across a field, and smashed into a wooden fence. As his car demolished part of the fence, a solid four by two inch part was snapped in two creating a 5ft spear like piece of timber, which was tossed into the air. By the time his car finally came to rest the splintered stake had smahed through the windscreen and impaled Lee through the chest, narrowly missing his heart.

One of the eye witnesses to the horrific accident was 27 year old Steve Roundhill, from Flushing near Falmouth, who was returning to Truro from Launceston. "I remember seeing a red flash travelling fast down the embankment and I realised it was a car." he said. He stopped at the roadside and sprinted across the field towards the wreckage.

"When I looked in the car at first I couldn't see anyone, but when I went around to the passenger side I could see Lee sprawled across the seats with this great lump of wood sticking out of him." he said, "It was then that Lee tried to sit up and I could see the eight inches of wood that was sticking out of his back.

Amazingly, he found Lee still conscious and able to talk, but feared that he might cause further internal damage by moving him.

"I just wanted to keep him as still as possible" he said, "I kept telling him he would alright, squeezing his hand and telling him the ambulance would be here soon. It was a huge relief to see the Air Ambulance Helicopter on the horizon.

Paramedics Carlton Real and Phil Nelson didn't know what they were walking into, they only knew that there had been a serious accident and that the driver might have been killed.

"When we flew over the car to land it didn't look that bad." Carlton explained, "We ran over and I remember asking Steve whether the driver was alive or not. When he told us that he was still talking and moving around we couldn't believe it."

We could see the wood going into his chest and we were trying to work out how far it had actually penetrated. It was something of a surprise to say the least when we found it was coming out of his back."

Also alerted to the scene were Paramedic John Gordon and Technician Kay Hall. "We had been informed that it was a Road Traffic Accident and that one car and one person were involved." John explained. "Other than these vague details we did not know what we were going to find. Whenwe arrived the Air Ambulance Paramedics were already at work, so we just pitched in. There wasn't a lot of bleeding and it would seem the post has actually sealed the wound fairly well itself. I've been in the service for 27 years and I've never seen an impaling remotely like it.