4-year-old hurt in late February when adult fell on her, police say
The four-year old girl who was injured when an adult fell on top of her on a cross-country ski trail north of Gatineau, Que., last week has died, police said Monday.
The girl was injured on Feb. 22 when she was being pulled in a sled by an adult who was skiing at Nakkertok in Val-des-Monts, a private cross-country ski club popular with families in the region.
They were going down a hill when the girl was injured, MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais police said the following day.
Paramedics and firefighters were performing CPR when police arrived. She was eventually taken to Ottawa children’s hospital CHEO.
Local police said on Monday that Ontario’s coroner is investigating. They did not say when the girl, nor did they name her, and said they still believe the incident was an accident.
This death comes about two weeks after a 13-year-old girl was fatally injured when her clothing got caught on a chairlift while she was downhill skiing at a nearby resort.
Rescuers couldn’t use ATV
The union representing firefighters in Val-des-Monts told Radio-Canada last week that their all-terrain vehicle (ATV) wasn’t equipped with winter treads and got stuck in the snow, forcing volunteer firefighters to carry the girl for several kilometres on foot through the woods.
The ATV is also equipped with a “snowbulance” trailer for transporting patients.
The municipality said the first call for help did not indicate how deep in the forest the girl was, and local police said it was difficult to locate her.
Fire department director Martin Galarneau said in French that the rescue could have been more effective had the ATV been ready for winter use, or if someone trained to install the treads had been on hand.
Both the union and the fire department said remote rescue training had been paused to focus instead on water and ice rescues, due to a high rate of drownings and large number of cottages in the region.
This incident was the department’s first remote rescue in about three years, Galarneau said. He said the department will re-evaluate its training and could recommend that the municipality buy snowmobiles to be better prepared for such winter rescues.
