Police officer saves lives

Thanks to drone: hypothermic accident driver discovered

Drone pilot Dieter Horn from the Knittelfeld police station(Bild: LPD Stmk)

A police drone pilot became a lifesaver last weekend. After a traffic accident, a car driver was missing and the drone helped to find him, severely hypothermic.

At around 11 p.m. on Friday, a patrol from the Vordernberg police station noticed a damaged vehicle on the B115. According to the tracks, the driver had skidded on the snow-covered road and crashed into a crash barrier. However, the driver was no longer with the vehicle and footprints led into an adjacent forest.

As it was not clear to the police whether the driver was injured or whether there could be a reason for a possible escape, the officers quickly launched a manhunt. For this purpose, patrols from Trofaiach and Leoben as well as "Tasso Nord" service dogs and a drone pilot were requested.

Drone found the 58-year-old driver 
Drone pilot Dieter Horn from the Knittelfeld police station was finally able to locate the missing man. This was made possible by an infrared camera mounted on the drone. "With this infrared camera, I can detect heat sources. I can therefore distinguish the surroundings from a human body."

The drone pilot then radioed his colleagues from the "Tasso-Nord" service dog patrol to the location. The missing person, a 58-year-old man from Leoben, was found next to a riverbed, already severely hypothermic. "Due to the wintry temperatures at the time and the man's light clothing, our efforts probably saved his life," says Dieter Horn.

The ambulance transported the 58-year-old to the LKH-Hochsteiermark, Leoben site. It has not yet been possible to establish why he fled from the damaged car. A breathalyzer test was negative.