Man dies shoveling snow in New Bedford

Samantha Lavien
@SLavienABC
Slavien@abc6.com

A man died in New Bedford after trying to shovel out from the two feet of snow dropped on the city over the past few days.

“There was one fatality as a result of the storm. A 53-year-old gentleman suffered a cardiac event and died after shoveling last night,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell.

Mitchell says he believes the man had a pre-existing heart condition.

We’re told emergency crews got to him as quickly as they could, all things considered.

“He was loaded worked on right there and then brought to the hospital,” said the city’s EMS director Mark McGraw.

McGraw says responding to emergency calls like this one are difficult especially when dealing with treacherous roads and whiteout conditions.

“Every call took a long time,” said McGraw.

McGraw says during the storm all ambulances were escorted by plows. He says his crews got stuck a couple of times but to the best of his knowledge never with a patient.

“The main drags were open but when you get off to the side streets they’d wait for the plow. The plow would be there to clear a path down the street and the ambulance would follow the fire truck,” said McGraw.

Throughout the storm there were 136 emergency calls, well above the usual 45 to 55 they usually respond to per day.

“We were really taxed we used mutual aide ambulances to come in,” said McGraw.

Authorities are not releasing the man’s identity or any other information about him at this time.

All emergency response teams, including over 100 vehicles, were out cleaning up for 40 hours straight during the storm in the city.

Mayor Mitchell says it was an unusual storm because of the wind, with drifts over 6 feet in some areas.

A state of emergency remains in effect in the city, and the parking ban has been extended until 6pm Thursday.  

(C) WLNE-TV 2015