Labor Day Accident

Labor Day Weekend '07 saw about a half dozen serious accidents. On Monday we followed the Rescue Car out to the Gap between Middle bowl and the West End to a hook-up between two motorcycles in a larger bowl there. As one motorcycle was coming around the bowl from the high end another was coming around from the low end. As they approached in the middle of the bowl on the same line they both turned downhill and crashed, head-on, at a very substantial speed.

Seconds after the Fremont County EMT's arrived, LifeFlight arrived. Both teams set to work stabilizing the two duners and getting them in shape to transport. To make myself useful, I helped to hold a sheet as shade over the more critically injured guy. Watching the medics work was a very eye opening experience that I wish everyone on the dunes could go through. I watched the non-responsive crash victim convulse and choke and thought that I was actually going to watch someone die right in front of me. The thought made me a little sick and I really wished that I were somewhere else at that moment. However, I watched the EMT's and LifeFlight medic cooly and professionally bring this kid back from the brink of death. An hour and a half later, in the blazing hot sun, I was fascinated and filled with a great respect for the people that show up without question to scrape our sorry, broken, and bleeding butts off of the dunes. For a great many duners these people mean the difference between life and death.