CLEVELAND — Personnel from the Coast Guard and first responders from Ottawa County and Jerusalem Township teamed up to assist an injured snowmobiler off the ice near Crane Creek, Ohio, early Sunday afternoon.
At 10:30 a.m., a watchstander at Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, received a request for assistance, from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s dispatcher, in searching for and assisting an injured snowmobiler. The reporting source was the injured snowmobiler himself, but he was unsure of his exact location, only that he was about 1 mile offshore.
While preparing to launch Station Marblehead’s ice rescue team, the station’s watchstander received notification that the injured snowmobiler had been located by an Ottawa County Sheriff’s officer who walked offshore on foot to assist. The officer vectored in personnel from the Jerusalem Township Fire Department and the Coast Guard.
A Coast Guard ice rescue team responded aboard an airboat with emergency medical services personnel and a SKF-ICE, an inflatable rescue craft. The airboat crew arrived on scene at 11:37 a.m.
Fire department personnel assisted the snowmobiler and secured him to a backboard. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard ice rescue team inflated the SKF-ICE. The injured man was then placed aboard the SKF-ICE and someone towed him to shore by his own snowmobile.
“With efficient and effective teamwork among all first responders we were able to assist an injured man who was in a lot of pain,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Mattei, coxswain of the airboat and leader of the ice rescue team.
“We were each able to use our skills, equipment and assets because we train together as often as time permits. We were familiar with each other, so things worked out smoothly.”
The Coast Guard ice rescue team escorted the tow back to shore in the vicinity of Magee Marsh. The man was transferred to Lucas County Hospital by ambulance.
A Coast Guard crew from Michigan rescued a snowmobiler Saturday after he fell through ice.
