KEEWATIN – Neighbouring communities combined their efforts on Monday when a collision between a pickup truck and a transport left the latter 60 feet down a bank.
One of those communities was Pellatt, an unorganized area near Kenora, whose volunteer fire department attended the 6 p.m. highway accident between Middle Lake Road and Highway 641.
Fire Chief Barry Bennet of the Pellatt United Fire Fighters said that they were accompanied by Mckenzie Clearwater Fire Department and Kenora Fire and Emergency Services at the accident, which left three people with non-life-threatening injuries.
He added that an ORNGE helicopter landed on the highway to transport patients.
“All the agencies that were involved worked really well together,” said Bennet.
“We all kind of work together, we’re all neighbours … Everybody helps each other out and that’s the way it’s got to be out here when you’re a small volunteer department,” he said.
Bennet added that the three occupants were very lucky.
A spokesperson with the OPP said that the 45-year-old driver of the transport, from Mitchell, Man., was charged with careless driving causing bodily harm.
Responsible for removing the transport from the creek was Manitoba’s Falcon Beach Auto and Towing, whose operations manager Manny Damata said that the task took nine hours.
According to Damata, the transport had fallen down a 60-foot bank and a team worked through the night, to both recover the vehicle and clean up an engine oil spill.
He added that the scene looks like the accident never happened.
