
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994                   TAG: 9405290043
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MONETA SQUAD GETS RESCUE PONTOON BOAT

Last summer, volunteers with the Moneta Rescue Squad responded to a collision on Smith Mountain Lake in two minutes, one-fifth the time it usually takes.

A rental pontoon boat made the difference.

After Memorial Day, the squad will have such a boat on hand permanently.

With the help of a state grant from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the squad soon will buy a 24-foot pontoon boat, which will chop critical minutes off its response time and will comfortably transport patients without jarring them any further.

"Last year, we had six patients that were critical enough to fly out on Life-Guard 10," said Daryl Hatcher, a paramedic with the crew. "With four, we could have used a boat."

The grant, part of the Rescue Squad Assistance Fund, will cover half of the $22,000 needed for the boat and rescue equipment. The squad will cover the other half with donations from its annual fund drive and ticket sales from raffling the old boat.

On Wednesday, David Falwell, captain of the Scruggs Diving Team, will present a check to the squad that will bring the squad closer to its goal. It still needs $2,000.

A portion of the grant will cover boating safety classes.

"If we can train the boaters who are out there, hopefully we can reduce the number [of accidents]," Hatcher said. Although the 34-member squad serves the Bedford County side of the lake, Hatcher said it will try to help crews in Franklin and Pittsylvania counties when called on.

Having the boat also will help divers retrieve bodies of drowning victims.

In the past, divers have been at risk because they have not had other rescue workers standing by in case a diver is injured.

Diving into the lake is dangerous because there are still trees standing on the bottom. Only a portion of the shoreline was cleared when the lake was created.

The squad's old standby, a 14-foot Boston Whaler donated in the early 1970s, is not equipped for rescue and can't support more than two people.

"If we put an operator and attendant and a patient, it would swamp," Hatcher said.

by CNB