A NEW control vehicle will enable Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team (Okehampton) to continue to help locate missing people on the moor. The Okehampton based team received their new control vehicle, which has cost £20,000 at a formal hand-over in the town last Sunday . The team, which is part of the Dartmoor Rescue Group and affiliated to the Mountain Rescue Rescue Council, is made up of volunteers. The team assist the emergency services by providing a resource for searching for missing people. In order to co-ordinate searches, good communications are essential. John Whiting, the team?s chairman said: ?This new vehicle has been fitted out to our specifications to function as an incident control unit. ?It will be able to carry all the equipment the team needs when responding to a call-out to implement a search and rescue mission. It is also equipped as an ambulance to transport a casualty to hospital.? The vehicle, a 3.5 ton long wheel base Iveco high-top, has cost £20,000, all of which has been raised by the team?s fundraising efforts. The vehicle has been fitted out, liveried with the team?s logos and had radios and aerials fitted. The team say they are grateful for the generosity of Hendy?s, GM Coachworks, Ken White Signs and Arqiva in achieving its goal. The new control vehicle has been welcomed by the team?s 30 members. Mr Whiting said as well as assisting in giving the same professional service the team had provided in the last 38 years, the new vehicle would also hopefully give the organisation a higher profile, aiding in its never-ending quest for funds. The vehicle was handed over to the team by Hendy?s of Marsh Barton at the Team Rescue Centre, in George Street, on Sunday morning.
