Training SAR Volunteer Struck By Own ATV

A Deschutes County Sheriff?s Search and Rescue volunteer was hospitalized Thursday after being thrown from an ATV that then rolled on top of him during an annual qualification checkout ride on a trail east of Bend, authorities said.

Henry Cure, 72, of Redmond, was in fair condition Thursday night at St. Charles Medical Center-Bend, a nursing supervisor said.

Cure was flown to the hospital by AirLink helicopter after the accident, which occurred around 2:30 p.m. during a training exercise on off-highway vehicle (OHV) Trail 50 in the East Butte area, more than 50 miles east of Bend, said sheriff?s Let. Scott Shelton, special services coordinator with SAR.

Cure was operating a 2005 Polaris Sportsman ATV owned by the sheriff’s office on a trail near the summit of East Butte, and was returning to the Ground Hog Play Area when the incident occurred, Shelton said.

Cure, a SAR volunteer since March 2009, was accompanied at the time by two sheriff?s office forest patrol deputies and eight SAR volunteers, including two medics.

Shelton said an investigation found that the ATV?s right front tire struck a jagged rock and immediately went flat. As a result, that part of the ATV struck the ground, and about the same time, the left rear tire struck another rock.

The two impacts threw Cure off the ATV, and he landed on the trail in front of the still-rolling vehicle, which came to rest on top of him, Shelton said.

The ATV was goingl about 10 to 15 mph at the time of the accident, the lieutenant said, which happened on about a 15 percent downhill slope.

Deputies and SAR personnel quickly began to treat Cure for his injuries, and he was flown to the Bend hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Shelton said SAR volunteers conduct many hours of training each year, operating a variety of equipment used during search and rescue operations.

It was a freak accident that Shelton and others were grateful wasn’t even worse.

“We are fortunate we had good medical folks in the field, and good team leaders,” he said, adding that Cure “should recover soon and be back to work with us, I hope.”