Man taken to trauma centre after parachuting accident

Incident took place in field southeast of Skydive Burnaby in Wainfleet on Saturday

A 44-year-old man suffered significant head injuries after a parachute malfunction Saturday in Wainfleet, says Niagara Emergency Medical Services spokesperson Bryce Brunarski.

Niagara EMS, Wainfleet Fire and Emergency Services and Niagara Regional Police were called to the area of Moore Road South, off Lakeshore Road around 3:30 p.m. for the report of a skydiving accident.

Fire Chief Morgan Alcock said he was told the man had an issue with his primary parachute after jumping from a plane above Skydive Burnaby, on Burnaby Road, and pulled his reserve chute out.

“Just before he got to the tree level, there was a change in the winds and his primary inflated, which pushed the reserve out of the way.”

Alcock said it’s estimated the man fell 30 metres, landing in a field about 400 metres west of Moore Road and about 500 metres southeast of Skydive Burnaby’s main building.

“We had five apparatus on scene, our UTV (Utility Terrain Vehicle) and more than a dozen firefighters,” he said, adding the UTV was to be used to access the patient.

Two Wainfleet fire trucks, an EMS SUV and ambulance were able to make it to the field, and the chief used the UTV to flatten tall grass for a landing spot for an Ornge air ambulance.

Brunarski said there were two paramedic units on scene, along with an EMS supervisor.

On scene EMS supervisor Darrin Elaschuk said paramedics and firefighters worked well together during the incident.

“They did an excellent job in extricating him in a timely fashion given the difficult nature of how far in the field he was,” said Elaschuk.

Once the helicopter landed, Ornge flight and Niagara EMS paramedics treated the man before transferring him.

Wainfleet firefighters held up a tarp and then put up a portable tent to shield the patient and paramedics from the sun.

Elaschuk said the man was flown to an out-of-region trauma centre.

Alcock said the incident was the first time the fire service used the what3words.com app in an emergency incident.

The app works by assigning three random words to a location that can then be shared with dispatchers to guide emergency responders.

It’s in use for Wainfleet, Welland, Port Colborne, Pelham, Thorold, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Grimsby, Lincoln and St. Catharines.

The U.K.-based technology, described as more reliable than GPS technology, works by dividing the world into a grid of three-metre squares and assigning three random words to each that can then be used to identify that location. It includes land and water.

Alcock said firefighters used the app to provide exact co-ordinates to St. Catharines dispatch, which provided it to Ornge and allowed the helicopter to land in the field not far from the patient.