Thermal camera drone saved car crash victim from freezing to death
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A drone equipped with a thermal camera helped rescue a man who had crashed his car down a deep ditch in the British county of Lincolnshire. The man was found in the middle of the night in a deep ditch, unconscious and severely chilled, 160 meters from the crashed car, reports the BBC.
By: Bjorn Ulfsson / CTIF NEWS
Police got the call about the call in the evening on February 24 about the crashed car from a person who had witnessed the accident. They spoke to the driver, who then walked away, possibly already in a state of shock.
Police who came to the crash site had no idea if the driver had been picked up by another car, or simply walked away by foot. It was several degrees below 0 degrees Celcius that night, and because of the cold weather, patrols searched for the man for hours with no result.
Eventually a camera drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera was used to survey the area, and with the help of this technology, police could eventually locate the man in a two meter deep ditch. The man, who was in a state of hypothermia, was taken to hospital for medical treatment.
The Lincolnshire Police have previously used drones to seize people who have been hunting rabbits with dogs, an illegal "sport" that has become a major problem in the British countryside.
The use of camera drones has been described as a great success in Lincolnshire.
Without the drone police would have been faced with searching the road and fields in the pitch black, and in freezing temperatures - for hours before the sun rose.
This remarkable footage shows the drone finding the man due to his body heat as he lies several feet off the main road where he had lost consciousness.
One police officer is then seen walking towards the man being directed by the drone pilot. When he finds him, he calls another officer who is seen running to the scene as an ambulance is called.
Police say the quick response may have saved the man’s life as hypothermia was setting in due to the freezing conditions.
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