Team members stretcher the woman to their base. Photo: Keswick MRT

Team members stretcher the woman to their base. Photo: Keswick MRT

A Lake District team has warned people not to rely solely on the What3words app if they need to call help.

The cautionary note follows an incident when an 83-year-old woman collapsed on Monday.

Information passed to a 999 call handler, using a What3words location, placed the casualty near Hawse End on the western shore of Derwent Water. In fact, the collapsed woman was in Crow Park, almost on the doorstep of the mountain rescue headquarters, overlooking the north-east shore of the lake.

A team spokesperson said: “The team sent a Land Rover first truck to the location only to find nobody. Further enquiries revealed the true location within walking distance of the base.

“Fortunately more team members had arrived at base and were able to respond quickly to this potentially serious medical incident. The casualty was assessed and stretchered back to base for further assessment and to await the arrival of an ambulance.

“This is the second callout in three days – and there have been others – when the W3W location has been close enough to be believable but wrong enough to be useless.

“W3W should not be relied upon on its own. Always give a verbal description of where the casualty is and better still a grid reference from a map or use the OS Locate app.”

The incident lasted 1¾ hours and involved 15 Keswick MRT volunteers.

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