ISLAND PARK — Another snowmobile accident took place in Fremont County on Monday afternoon. The incident was just 48 hours after a similar mishap near the Island Park Reservoir on Saturday.
The two accidents brought the total amount of accidents in the last four weeks in the area involving snowmobilers to five.
Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries attributes the rash of mishaps this winter to more people visiting than normal. He says that Island Park has a lot more snow than other traditional snowmobiling areas.
“We have snow that a lot of places don’t have, and we see a lot more people coming,” he said.
Around 3:30 p.m. Monday, Fremont County Search and Rescue official Eric Thomas reported that emergency responders were headed to a location about a half a mile from Highway 20 to aid the injured snowmobiler.
“They have some sort of an injury. I’m not quite sure what the extent of it is,” he said.
It wasn’t known the name or age of Monday’s accident victim.
On Saturday morning, a snowmobiler was injured while riding near the Island Park Reservoir. Inclement weather prevented Life Flight from rescuing the man on three separate occasions. Eventually, Life Flight crews landed at a makeshift landing site along Highway 20 South of Ashton. From there Search and Rescue crews picked up Life Flight medical workers and took them to the injured snowmobiler.
Earlier on Saturday, the man had been snowmobiling with friends when he was hurt.
“He was in the timber south of the reservoir. He was with a group, and one of them rode out to lead the ambulance and brought search and rescue back with him,” Thomas said.
The snowmobiler suffered extensive injuries and continually drifted in and out of consciousness.
“The crash victim complained of upper leg pain, back pain and of being really cold,” Thomas said.
Two Fremont County Sheriff’s deputies, as well as Island Park EMS, snowmobiled to the reservoir. From there, a paramedic asked county dispatch to call in an ambulance helicopter, but none in the region could help because of cloudy weather over the reservoir. Shortly afterward a Fremont County Deputy asked Fremont County Search and Rescue to bring a toboggan to help move the injured man from the crash site to a medical sled.
At this point, officials asked Life Flight to land at the temporary site along Highway 20, where medical workers were taken to the accident scene.
“They reached the patient around 2 p.m. After his injuries were assessed, he was secured to the toboggan and transported from the crash site,” Thomas said.
After the weather improved slightly, search and rescue again requested Life Flight to fly over Ashton Hill and Big Bend Ridge. Once more, Life Flight pilots reported that weather conditions made it impossible to do so, and the patient was instead taken via “Med Sled” to Harriman State Park, where an ambulance and Life Flight workers were waiting.
“By the time everyone made it to the ambulance, the weather had lifted, allowing Life Flight to land at Harriman State Park,” Thomas said.
At that point Life Flight workers loaded the injured snowmobiler onto the helicopter, taking him to a local hospital.
It wasn’t known the man’s age or where he was from. As of Monday night, his condition was still unknown.
The accidents followed last week’s incident, when a stranded snowmobiler was rescued near the Continental Divide. At the first of the year, two snowmobilers died in two separate accidents within a week of each other.
Thomas agreed that Fremont County has had an unusual amount of snowmobile accidents this year.
“It’s just how things go,” Thomas said. “Last year we didn’t have a lot of searches. This year we’re making up for it at the first part of the year. It’s either famine or feast. They come in waves.”
