Wallace man Life Flighted after ATV crash
Photo courtesy of Shoshone County Fire District No.1/ Life Flight and Two Bear Air helicopters on the ground at Sather Field. This is where Howard was transfered from one helicopter to the other.
Photo courtesy of the Wallace Chamber of Commerce Facebook page/ The Life Flight helicopter touched-down at Wallace High School before heading toward Silverton.
OSBURN— A multi-agency effort that included two medical-evacuation helicopters led to the successful rescue of a male who was injured in a ATV crash Sunday night.
Shoshone County Fire District No.1 (SCFD1) reports that at approximately 8:15 p.m., EMS, fire crews, and a Shoshone County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a report of an ATV rollover accident up Moon Pass.
Equipped with ATV’s and medical supplies, emergency crews rendezvoused one mile from the end of the pavement up Placer Creek and traveled roughly another mile to the location of the crash.
Upon arrival, 52- year old Mark Howard of Spokane, Washington and Wallace, Idaho was spotted 120 feet away from where he left the Red Oak trail he was riding on.
In order to reach his location, crews had to strap-in and rappel from the top of the trail down a 40 foot embankment.
Victor Malsom, SCFD1 fire fighter/ AEMT, assessed Howard’s injuries and suspected possible femur and hip fractures, along with other minor injuries.
Because of these possible server injuries, Cyle Hanan, incident commander, determined that the best course of action was to dispatch Two Bear Air (a Montana based air-rescue service that frequently responds to calls for assistance in Shoshone County) and air-lift Howard from the ATV crash site.
A helicopter with Two Bear Air arrived a short time later and recovered Howard from the area without incident.
Howard was then taken to the Sather Field in Silverton and handed off to a Life Flight helicopter that was awaiting their arrival.
Life Flight then transported him to Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
The Life Flight helicopter initially landed on the field in front of Wallace Jr/Sr High School, but then moved to Silverton after it was determined that Sather Field was a more suitable location for the exchange.
Two helicopter agencies were dispatched to this incident because of their respective job descriptions.
Two Bear Air helicopters and crew members are equipped and trained to handle wilderness environments and recover individuals from those environments.
Life Flight helicopters are reserved for medical transportation and patient treatment if needed.
With an incident such as this where emergency crews are responding to a remote area, the environment in which they are operating can make an already difficult situation worse if someone else gets hurt.
This is why responders handled this one by the book and made sure everyone got back safe.
“Rough terrain, dense canopy, along with steep angles to work with made this a difficult rescue,” Malsom said commenting on the incident.
“In these high danger situations, you must keep personnel safety a priority along with providing patient care.”
John Miller, SCFD1 fire fighter/ AEMT, was pleased with how the situation resolved and is thankful for everyone bringing their A-game.
“Thanks to all agencies (Two Bear Air, SCFD1, Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office, and Life Flight) for working together to make this difficult rescue a success. Its having good relationships with our neighboring agencies that makes these technical operations a success.”