The CP Rail employee rescued by helicopter after an industrial accident last week on Kootenay Lake is out of hospital and thanking everyone who helped him.
“I’m doing okay,” Daryl Anderson, 45, told the Star on Monday.
The signals and communications foreman was with a crew working on an isolated stretch of rail north of Tye when the incident occurred.
He said he couldn’t go into detail because it’s under investigation, but search and rescue crews said he fell from a bucket truck. He suffered a dislocated left hip plus bruises and cuts.
“For what happened, it was pretty fortunate that it wasn’t worse,” he says.
The 22-year CP veteran, who lives in Vernon but works throughout the Kootenays, says he remained conscious at the side of the track following the accident.
His colleagues kept him “warm and comfortable as much as they could in an environment like that and reassured me … There wasn’t too much they could do as far as any wounds beyond some cuts.”
BC Ambulance was called, but because the area is not accessible by vehicle, the job of getting Anderson out fell to Nelson Search and Rescue. They sent a helicopter and long-line rescue team, backed up by a boat and rope team in case the first plan failed.
They airlifted Anderson to Sirdar on the opposite side of the lake, where he was checked over by paramedics before being flown to hospital in Trail.
He stayed there until Friday morning, when he was transferred to hospital in Vernon, and then released Sunday. He’s not sure how long he will be off work, but “it will probably be some weeks.”
Anderson says his rescuers impressed him.
“I always knew what a great service and value they are to have around, but now that I’ve actually experienced it, I’m very appreciative,” he says.
“The rescuers were all very professional, reassuring, and helped me out a lot. I’m very grateful and thankful.”
He also praised staff at the Trail hospital, and “everybody who made a pretty terrible situation a lot easier.”