Para-rower praises police dive unit
Posted Jul 12, 2013 02:49:13 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – A harmless mistake, moving a wheelchair on a dock.
But whoever moved Para rower Peter Morel’s wheelchair on Wednesday morning didn’t realize that the brakes would unlock when the wheels moved, and left the chair with its brakes off.
It was windy at the Ottawa Rowing Club that morning and by the time Morel returned from his row there were only two chairs on the dock instead of three.
Morel’s $7,500 wheelchair was 38 feet down – at the bottom of the Ottawa River.
He says that the club tried to book a commercial diver to come out to retrieve the chair, but they wouldn’t be available until July 16, almost a week later.
That’s when Morel says that the club manager remembered the Ottawa Police Dive Team used to dock for training exercises.
“The guys came out on their own time the very next morning,” he said. “It took them about an hour to get ready and eight minutes in the water and boom there it was, found it and pulled it up.”
Morel has nothing, but praise for the team.
“Those guys are really good at what they do,” he explained.
He says that the chair is drying out before he takes it in for a cleaning and to get some of the bearings replaced.
