Tragedy on the Trail

[H3slate]

http://www.currypilot.com/News/Local-News/Brookings-man-dies-in-off-road-accident

Just a reminder that anything can happen on the trail. A family was on the McGrew Trail in Southern Oregon. Jeep started to slip off the road. Father gets his wife and child out of the vehicle. Then he decides to get back in and try to recover the vehicle. The vehicle rolls down the 400 ft embankment and he is ejected from the vehicle. He did not survive.

Please be safe on the trails this summer. Carry the right recovery gear, know the trails you are running, always run with at least one other vehicle, and always wear your safety belt.

 

[06 H3]

holy ****....thanks for the reminder. So sad to hear this

 

[Kyle]

Wow! Prayers to his family. That must have been horrifying watching him get in the car and it rolling down to embankment!

 

[Pappibri]

Sad too hear.

 

[3Hummers]

Always should have a buddy truck along.

 

[ABNTROOP]

Whew, read the title and was afraid something had happened to you or one of yours Erik, sucks for that family, good reminder, glad you're ok!

 

[08H3]

Don't get me wrong....that's very sad and we need to keep the family in thought and prayer, however I've been told before how irresponsible I am for taking my family offroading. I always counter with the argument that I was probably putting them in much more danger by driving them on a public highway with thousands of other cars getting to the ORV area. Everything in life is a calculated risk. You can never eliminate risk, only manage it.

 

[ArtHummer]

Damn... Don't be a hero when you by yourself and have no recovery gear on dangerous roads.
Prayers to the family. Wife is only 29 with 2 kids and such a tragedy.

 

[twinmill28]

Wow--that really sucks for his family.
I've put myself in very similar situations several times wheeling in Utah. You get out to assess the problem, jump back in and that freaking seat belt won't move due to the angle you're stuck at so you can't buckle it. Luckily each time I had a buddy or buddies able to strap it and bring me back to reality.
I remember the last time I was out in Utah with a couple of the other guys from the forum and my next door neighbor with his Jeep. His eyes got massively huge when he realized how close I was to rolling down a really long steep hill. They were able to put three guys on the front of the deuce and get a strap on it to get me straight, but that is really scary business when you're that close to the edge.

 

[H3slate]

Don't get me wrong....that's very sad and we need to keep the family in thought and prayer, however I've been told before how irresponsible I am for taking my family offroading. I always counter with the argument that I was probably putting them in much more danger by driving them on a public highway with thousands of other cars getting to the ORV area. Everything in life is a calculated risk. You can never eliminate risk, only manage it.

I totally agree. We can't let the what if's and possible bad outcomes prevent us from living our lives.

 

[atvspeed4]

I dont care if you are wearing a seatbelt or not. When your vehicle heads down 400 feet your screwed. I hate to hear things like this happen but think of how many deadly accidents occur on the road vs the few a year offroad. It is definitely a reminder to think carefully about wheeling alone and the routes you choose.

 

[alrock]

Been too close myself to going down embankments, from 40' to much higher, and I would never try to "self-recover". I've posted this pic before - it's of a guy (not in our group) that went a bit off the trail and rather than wait 2 minutes for help, figured his accelerator would save him. His roll was "only" 100'. The driver had to be airlifted to a hospital

I was saved by the trees here, but they were thin trees that could have given way too if luck didn't work out. When I first slid off the trail, I was only over a bit more than halfway from what you see here. It was when we applied the winch that I sent further downhill. Had I tried to do this myself, I would have been screwed.

Also, here are my tire tracks from an attempted self-recovery. I was backing up and the mud slid me over until I was bobbing on the edge, just like you see in the movies. At that point we used a buddy truck and pulled me back from the edge.

A long time ago we did bracket voting for the most important thing you can have with you when you go wheeling. The items were things like winches, straps, radios, etc. and the thing that won was a buddy truck.

 

[Sethmark]

Back when I was active, I used to solo wheel quite a bit. It's thrilling, satisfying, and MUCH faster. In fact, one of my favorite wheelin trips of all time was through the Rubicon, starting at loon and finishing at rubicon springs solo....at night. I brought one of my best friends and both of us had been through the trail a couple of dozen times. We were able to get through in 4 hours. Certainly record time for me..... But I knew where I was and knew where I was going.

This case is a sad story... But the guy did the right thing by recognizing trouble and evacuating his family. It's a shame he didn't set a loose winch cable... My guess is there's plenty of trees in that neck of the woods.