Foo - Sunday snowmobile adventure ends hard

So Renee (my wife) and I go up riding the snowmobiles with a group of my friends at West Mountain over by Cascade, ID.
We had a good day in general.
Snow wasn't bad for this time of year, Dragon ran good, Wife rode really well.
It was good.

Then on the trail on the way back we happen up on an accident that had just happened.
This 18 year old girl evidently WAY overshot a corner grabbed brake, and performed a mid air dead sailor into a clump of trees and got spanked there by the sled.
She was F.ed up bad.

Sent Renee up the road to direct sled traffic around and to keep her out of seeing anything too nasty.
Kenny is certified in some kind of first aid, so he stayed to evaluate the situation while I rode the 2 1/2 miles down to meet the ambulance at the parking lot.
Ambulance isn't going up that trail, so I give the head medic guy and his pack a fast ride back up.
Maybe 3 minutes up.
He takes one look and calls life flight.
I grab my wife and go up above the corner where the sheriff has marked out for the helicopter.
That way no one rides around the blind corner into spinning blades.
Helicopter comes in and we go down to the accident site.

At this point the tree (3" diameter) that her leg is wrapped around needs to be cut and removed, and also cut the trees that are holding the sled there to get it the rest of the way off of her.
This took all of us.
Then the back board and all come down the hill and we hold the other trees bent back off of her while they put her on the board.
She is bending in lots of places that she shouldn't.
One leg looks 6" longer than the other. She said she could feel her hip break when they strapped that part. It moved in like Jell-O.

Once she was finally as comfortable on the back board as possible and full of Morphine along with a couple other stronger meds, we had to make a chain and pass the back board up the hill to the trail.and then run to the top of the chain to pass her on again.
At that point they set her down to splint up some more moving parts that aren't supposed to be mobile.
They gave more pain killer again. She said she "felt wonderful"

They flew her out to Boise and we got her sled out and towed back down the mountain with the family.

It was her first time on a sled and she was riding with her boy friend and his parents.
As of the time that they drove off from the parking lot, the girl's parents had not been located yet.

I'm guessing broken hip, broken femur, both bones in lower leg, possible broken back, probably broken collar bone and/or separated shoulder. High probability of internal damage.

Very disturbing in general.

Whoa..... And this children is why you do not play with snowmobiles like they are 4 wheelers.

Gravity, nice job! Ya did what you could and didn't melt down like a lot of people would.

Gravity, nice job! Ya did what you could and didn't melt down like a lot of people would.


+1...Good job, even if you don't have the medical knowledge, a cool head will get you through almost anything. It sounds like you did everything right.

She'll be lucky if she can walk again. <shakin' head sadly> :(

A big pat on the back for you and your wife, GW. Hope you're around when I crash on my bike! :beer:

Whoa..... And this children is why you do not play with snowmobiles like they are 4 wheelers.

They are very different, that's for sure.
This is also why you don't put first time riders on machines with 135hp
She was on a 99 Polaris RMK 700 with SLP pipes and a few other smaller mods.
That's an experienced riders back country tree riding sled.

I smell a lawsuit comin' on that one. <loooooong heavy sigh>

I smell a lawsuit comin' on that one. <loooooong heavy sigh>
Sorry for the girl, but not sorry for more restrictions on snowmachines in the back country.

Whoa..... And this children is why you do not play with snowmobiles like they are 4 wheelers.

Yeah because 4-wheelers are sooooooo much safer. :rolleyes:

I love riding 4-wheelers, but they are just as prone to crashes, IMHO.

Sad story.

Gravity, nice job! Ya did what you could and didn't melt down like a lot of people would.

At first I thought you were directing your comment at the force due to gravity and that seemed a little insensitive. :rolleyes:

Yeah because 4-wheelers are sooooooo much safer. :rolleyes:

I love riding 4-wheelers, but they are just as prone to crashes, IMHO.

Sad story.
Yes and no. There was a joke hidden in there that seemed to have escaped a few that correlates to how youngsters drive their 4 wheelers and yes they do flip them and break their necks.

more restrictions on snowmachines in the back country.

Why ask for more restrictions?
As soon as those are imposed, who will be restricted next?
Mountain bikes could very well be restricted in the back country next,
so be careful what you ask for.

More restrictions wouldn't have changed anything any way.
The location she crashed was 2 1/2 miles up from the parking lot.
The "trail" as it's called in the winter, is a 2 lane gravel mountain road in the summer, but with snow/ice packed on it now.
What she needed was guidence and some one who knows how to ride to teach her, rather than telling her to try to keep up and turning her loose on a machine that's just far too much machine for her.

Now since she didn't get that guidence,
Well, you know the rest.

Any update on her condition? I have done a bit of googling looking for news coverage, but did not find anything. Sounds like you and your friends and family did an awesome job in a very tough situation. I hope that people like you are around if I ever have a bad bike wreck.

She'll be lucky if she can walk again. <shakin' head sadly> :(
she's lucky her ass aint dead:rolleyes:

I smell a lawsuit comin' on that one. <loooooong heavy sigh>
who they gonna sue? i'm not quite following here.. isn't this user error/inexperience/incompetence?

No updates on her condition.
I am curious though as to how she's fairing out now.

I don't know who said it, but they were right. When you play, you pay. Sometimes dearly.

Broken femurs SUCK. Back injury's are terrible on there own, but a busted femur is one excruciatingly painful injury.

By the way, I am personally a red cross certified responder, and I think its something everyone should seek out training for. This story is an excellent example of why. **** can, does, and will happen.

So Renee (my wife) and I go up riding the snowmobiles with a group of my friends at West Mountain over by Cascade, ID.
We had a good day in general.
Snow wasn't bad for this time of year, Dragon ran good, Wife rode really well.
It was good.

Then on the trail on the way back we happen up on an accident that had just happened.
This 18 year old girl evidently WAY overshot a corner grabbed brake, and performed a mid air dead sailor into a clump of trees and got spanked there by the sled.
She was F.ed up bad.

Sent Renee up the road to direct sled traffic around and to keep her out of seeing anything too nasty.
Kenny is certified in some kind of first aid, so he stayed to evaluate the situation while I rode the 2 1/2 miles down to meet the ambulance at the parking lot.
Ambulance isn't going up that trail, so I give the head medic guy and his pack a fast ride back up.
Maybe 3 minutes up.
He takes one look and calls life flight.
I grab my wife and go up above the corner where the sheriff has marked out for the helicopter.
That way no one rides around the blind corner into spinning blades.
Helicopter comes in and we go down to the accident site.

At this point the tree (3" diameter) that her leg is wrapped around needs to be cut and removed, and also cut the trees that are holding the sled there to get it the rest of the way off of her.
This took all of us.
Then the back board and all come down the hill and we hold the other trees bent back off of her while they put her on the board.
She is bending in lots of places that she shouldn't.
One leg looks 6" longer than the other. She said she could feel her hip break when they strapped that part. It moved in like Jell-O.

Once she was finally as comfortable on the back board as possible and full of Morphine along with a couple other stronger meds, we had to make a chain and pass the back board up the hill to the trail.and then run to the top of the chain to pass her on again.
At that point they set her down to splint up some more moving parts that aren't supposed to be mobile.
They gave more pain killer again. She said she "felt wonderful"

They flew her out to Boise and we got her sled out and towed back down the mountain with the family.

It was her first time on a sled and she was riding with her boy friend and his parents.
As of the time that they drove off from the parking lot, the girl's parents had not been located yet.

I'm guessing broken hip, broken femur, both bones in lower leg, possible broken back, probably broken collar bone and/or separated shoulder. High probability of internal damage.

Very disturbing in general.

That made me sick just reading it, i feel really bad for her and her family/friends and boyfriend.

No updates on her condition.
I am curious though as to how she's fairing out now.
It gets worse before it gets better. I can tell you that from experience.

That made me sick just reading it, i feel really bad for her and her family/friends and boyfriend.

Ya, It really stinks for everyone even remotely involved with things like this.
The really bad part is in just how avoidable it was.
She is a first timer, so basically the lead person needed to go at her pace

Wow, another sf member into biking... cool.

Wow, another sf member into biking... cool.

Guilty as charged. lol
Who are you on SF?
(that's www.snowmobilefanatics.com for those wondering)

man - I had a hard time reading that. Yeah, she's lucky she's not dead and she's lucky you happened on her and coordinated things so well.

Nice work Gravity,

We have the same problem here with young people (and kids really) and dune machines. They ride a steep dune and the machine comes back over and on them, or it rolls over them, never a happy outcome, usually sad.

My own opinion, too much motorized recreation, too much needless injury and death, WAY too much power in the hands of kids. I'll stick with cycling, ski touring and hiking, better for you in so many ways.

Gravity,

Im KHE on sf. I have been going to the site since january 02 or somthing like that. I dont post much, but visit daily...

You did a nice job out there. If I every crash my bike, I hope somone like you is around to help me... Nice work man.

Why do kids ride things that they probably can't handle and know they don't have any expertise in? I just don't get it. It is like giving your 16 year old permission to buy a Haybusa 1300 for their first vehicle. WTF! You get a Yugo with one of the three cylinders burnt up so you can't go over 40 mph! Go figure.

Nice work Gravity,

We have the same problem here with young people (and kids really) and dune machines. They ride a steep dune and the machine comes back over and on them, or it rolls over them, never a happy outcome, usually sad.

My own opinion, too much motorized recreation, too much needless injury and death, WAY too much power in the hands of kids. I'll stick with cycling, ski touring and hiking, better for you in so many ways.

Too much motorized recreation? No. Motorized recreation is good, just has to be respected.
The kids need supervised and they need to be on machines built for kids so as to not over power them so easely. This that you are describing is totally the parents fault for not teaching the kids propperly, not the manufactures fault, not the law's fault, or any one else's, just the parents.
My kids ride, but then they also have a great teacher who keeps a good eye on them, ME. I'm teaching them to have fun on these machines, to respect them, and to take care of the areas we ride in too. I want them to be around to enjoy the sports for a long time as well as having the sports and riding areas here for them to enjoy.

I like both motorized and non motorized. Both can give a mean work out.
Most people who go ride the sleds with me normally have problems being able to walk down a flight of stairs the next day from the quads getting worked so hard.

Also, one can get just as hurt riding bicycles in the mountains.
Rock drops, hard off camber corners next to drops, trees, rocks, loose gravel on the trail, and a whole list of things can cause one to crash just as badly there too, but on bicycles you probably don't have as good of protective gear unless you are a downhiller or free rider, so then the crash just gets worse.

The problem is not motorized sports, but rather it is parents who don't care enough to teach the kids some respect for what they are doing, where, and how.

Why do kids ride things that they probably can't handle and know they don't have any expertise in? I just don't get it. It is like giving your 16 year old permission to buy a Haybusa 1300 for their first vehicle.

Exactly my point.
The kids/beginners need to be on smaller machines to be able to learn on,
They need to be very closely supervised by the more experienced adults,
and they need to be taught respect for what they are on and for what they are doing.
Lastly, but certainly not least, they need to be taught respect for the area they are riding in, both in terms of danger as well as in terms of taking care of the area.

Ya KHE, I've seen you over there.
Cool.