6/12/2013
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
ITD crews assist pilots, EMTs with air-ambulance needs
BOISE - Maintenance crews from the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) are often the first – and in rural areas, sometimes the only – responders to incidents requiring an air ambulance.
In those cases, ITD is called on to establish designated “Landing Zones” on or near highways to facilitate a rescue. Crews routinely provide traffic control, and sometimes landing assistance for these inbound helicopters.
Several maintenance workers from the southwest Idaho office attended a half-day Landing Zone Officer (LZO) training in Lowman on April 13 put on by Air St. Luke’s.
Last fall, similar training took place in Eastern Idaho for ITD employees. The pictures linked to this story (picture 1 and picture 2) are from that training in October 2012. It was too windy for the helicopter in Lowman in mid-April, so the course was taught in a traditional classroom style. The third picture is from Labor Day 2011, when Life Flight touched down at the ITD maintenance yard in Banks to extract an injured person.
Southwest Idaho ITD Maintenance Coordinator Dan Bryant said the training allows maintenance crews to understand what to expect when other agencies are landing helicopters on ITD right of way. They also learn the dangers inherent in these operations, like the slicing power of helicopter tail rotors.
Bryant said it is a rarity for air-ambulance services to ask non-EMS people to be trained to control the landing zone.
The emergency personnel in attendance were thankful for ITD’s commitment.
“It is commendable that ITD is committed to helping in times of emergencies,” said Gretchen Sherlin, another training attendee and a Lowman-area Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) by trade.
“It makes sense because ITD has the ability and skill to stop traffic, is constantly on the highways and interstate, and has radio capability to contact State Communications or activate an alert system,” she explained.
“We are so pleased that ITD has become a ‘partner’ in air medical helicopter safety. We EMS personnel are often short-handed in the rural/remote areas of Idaho and have only a driver and EMT on the scene. This leaves us with no Landing Zone Officer,” Sherlin added.
The Landing Zone Officer is usually selected or appointed by the EMT crew on the scene, Sherlin said. Sometime it is the person who is closest to a possible landing zone, although anyone who has taken the LZO training course may be the LZO.
“The safety of the air medical helicopter crews and the EMS personnel on the ground is the major priority when air ambulance assistance is requested,” she added.
The Landing Zone Officer identifies a suitable landing zone that is at least 100-feet X 100-feet, relatively flat and free of debris, wild animals, spectators, power lines, tall sign posts, fences, and other obstacles. The LZO often provides the GPS coordinates and local weather conditions to State Communications or the pilot.
When the helicopter is approximately five minutes from landing, the LZO communicates with the pilot on a specified radio frequency to provide pertinent information to the pilot such as potential hazards, slope of the landing zone, and wind direction and speed.