SAR Casualty Pulley System
REF:P0001

The SAR Casualty Pulley System has been used over many years to lift casualties onto a stretcher or transfer their load from safety lines, slings or rope to the rescuer or rescue system.

It first came to light watching the UK Holyhead Coastguard cliff rescue team performing a rescue demonstration at a Mountain Rescue Conference for England and Wales approx. 20 years ago. It was a neat simple idea made from two small specially made twin pulleys that packed into a small bag.

From this I found a ready made system called the Haultrack, used for lifting out car engines. It did have its failures as it wore out very quickly, sometimes jamming and used on the cliff the brake was out of reach for the user and difficult to operate. This prompted me to design the Casualty Pulley System using small marine pulleys and 6mm prussic cord. When tested with the cord in its locking cleat it held at 9kN and the only deformation was on the axles on both pulley sets.