By Van Jensen
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
Copyright 2007 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Shortly after the Big Dam Bridge opened across the Arkansas River last fall, Pulaski County agencies began discussing how to handle the various emergencies that might occur on the bridge.
Last Saturday, those contingencies were put to the test when 911 calls from atop the bridge indicated that a bicyclist had collapsed from an apparent heart attack.
According to witnesses, several minutes passed before an ambulance and firetruck arrived from the Little Rock side of the bridge, moving along Rebsamen Park Road.
The Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services employees went on foot up to the curve at the southwestern edge of the bridge, witnesses said. They loaded the patient, Marcus Logue, 48, onto a gurney and wheeled him back down, leaving a large Saturday morning crowd behind.
Though other pedestrians at the scene earlier had performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Logue, the Little Rock man later died, becoming the first fatality on the bridge, authorities say.
The Pulaski County Office of Emergency Management, which previously had coordinated planning for an emergency response to the Big Dam Bridge, is now reviewing Saturday’s response.
Director Kathy Botsford said the office hasn’t reached a conclusion yet, but the protocols in place were followed in the two or three previous 911 calls to the bridge.
Over the course of several meetings and discussions in recent months, officials with the county, Little Rock and North Little Rock agreed that in the case of a 911 call from the bridge, responders from Little Rock and North Little Rock would go to their respective sides of the bridge, Botsford said.
The first agency to arrive is responsible for taking stock of the situation and deciding whether the responders from the other city are needed, she said. If not, the other agency is sent back.
“The primary thing is getting notification of the patient’s whereabouts to the best of the caller’s ability,” said J.T. Cantrell of the Little Rock Fire Department. “Then it’s sending the right people to take care of the problem.” All agencies that respond to the bridge - including police departments, fire departments and MEMS - have keys to remove the barriers at either end of the bridge. With those out of the way, small all-terrain vehicles can access the bridge.
Little Rock and North Little Rock responders can also launch boats to the upstream and downstream sides of the dam. The Pulaski County sheriff’s office is responsible for emergencies in the river.
“We know what we’re getting into,” Cantrell said.
MEMS officials said the response concerns go beyond the bridge to all areas of the pedestrian trail, particularly in North Little Rock, where it winds into the woods.
A MEMS golf cart with the capability to transport a patient will soon be stored on the North Little Rock side of the bridge, speeding the response time to distant parts of the trail and to the top of the bridge, a spokesman said.
Jack E. Hill, who regularly jogs on the bridge and was one of the people at the scene when Logue collapsed, said he worries that emergency responders haven’t given thought to one potential problem.
Noting that the bridge opened after last year’s summer season, Hill said pedestrians could be at risk for heatstroke or dehydration. At sites such as Pinnacle Mountain, signs warn hikers to take along plenty of water, but there are no such signs at the Big Dam Bridge.
“There’s going to be people on the bridge this summer who don’t know the danger,” Hill said. “Your body is stressed, even on a 5 percent grade.
“I fear that, potentially, Marcus is the first of others.” Botsford said she didn’t know if the county had discussed posting any warnings about heat or humidity at the bridge.
Cantrell said heat-related illness is always a concern in the summer, no matter the location.
“Some people kind of push the envelope,” he said. “That’s where we usually get in trouble.”