Thanks, Doug, for these links.

That Edmonton Journal story is so very sad. A significant part of what I carry in my vehicle (large First Aid kit, 36" pry bar..) is primarily in case I happen upon someone else's crisis.

Best wishes to the survivor and kudos to the passerby who risked their lives to help.

“A woman was running down the road asking for a knife. I grabbed my axe and yelled at my fiancee to get the rope,” said McDonald, a filmmaker who had been snowshowing in the area.


That second article from Banff is also gripping. If ever presented with such a situation I hope I have what it takes -- gear-wise, gut-wise and ingenuity-wise -- to help.

A fallen tree limb, a borrowed dog's leash and the know-how of two brothers saved a severely hypothermic man trapped in icy water near Banff.


This conjured memories for me of the January 1982 Air Florida crash into the Potomac (after it crashed into the 14th Street Bridge (I-395). The crash happened amidst a major snowstorm. The bridge was jammed with traffic (people died in cars, too). The river was covered in ice, the water was just one degree above freezing. A few people survived the crash only to live the horror of freezing and drowning. A Park Police helicopter came to the rescue in a blinding snowstorm and a civilian named Lenny Skutnik who dove in to save a woman on the verge of drowning -- she'd been in that freezing water for 30 minutes. "It feels like knives in you to be that cold...."

President Reagan lauded in him in the State of the Union address two weeks later. A heroic passenger perished after forgoing rescue efforts to help fellow passengers. The bridge is now named for him. Still gripping video to watch. Brrrr! Half an hour later there was a subway crash that killed four. Terrible day in DC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASBb-oMT5EU