ST. GEORGE — A man was seriously injured and flown to the hospital after crashing an all-terrain vehicle on Sand Mountain during the Tri-State Jamboree Saturday afternoon. The man’s wife was also injured and transported to the hospital by ambulance.
Emergency personnel were dispatched at about 1 p.m. to the single-vehicle rollover on Sand Mountain, a 15,000-acre area filled with sand dunes in Sand Hollow State Park, involving a side-by-side ATV with two injured occupants, Park Manager Laura Melling said.
Sand Hollow park rangers responded with an ambulance crew dispatched from Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue. While rangers were making their way to where the ATV was located, Washington County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue was mobilizing teams to the area.
Intermountain Life Flight was also dispatched in the event air transport was needed.
The man suffered “some pretty serious injuries when he was flown out to the hospital,” Melling said, adding that the woman was transported by ground.
The couple were at the park participating in the Tri-State ATV Jamboree, a three-day event holding 28 off-road rides, when the crash occurred.
The driver was jumping the dunes at the top of Sand Mountain, near an area referred to as “the bowl,” Melling said, when the ATV rolled end-over-end multiple times.
Melling cautioned that anyone jumping the dunes in ATVs on Sand Mountain should always make certain they can see both sides of the area before they make a jump. That includes the start point and the landing point, she said, to make sure they can land safely.
This particular safety tip is provided as a general caution to park visitors, Melling said, and is unrelated to the crash.
Additional information about the couple’s condition was unavailable at the time this report was taken.
This report is based on statements from emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.
In order to ride the dunes, you need to be proficient in reading them. NEVER launch over the top unless you KNOW what the landing is like. Used to ride buggies in the dunes in California many years, and I would never launch over the top, only laying it down easily on the other side. Someone was negligent here. The driver not knowing? Trying to hard to catch up? Telling others he had dune experience? Wasn’t paying attention? Damn, get well quickly ATV’rs.