Last year, a young girl (aged 18) was in a hiking accident at Ricketts Glen State Park in northern PA. You can read about that here. You can see pictures of what it would have looked like here or you can watch the videos below. The pictures and video are mine. I was not with the girl. I do not know the girl, but...Your OPTIONAL journal assignment is to consider the following questions?
A) is it fair that they may charge her with a crime?
A) is it fair that they may charge her with a crime?
B) is it not her right to go into land that she technically owns (since it is funded with tax dollars)?
C) what should the responsibility of rescue workers and state parks be to those who tread foolishly and unprepared into places that they aren't prepared for?
Technically, you need crampons, an ice ax, and a rope at the minimum to go in.
These are pictured below.
The final picture is close to the area she fell into. The video is right before where she fell. She was coming in from the top, so she didn't get to this section. Had she tried this area, she could have been drowned or dead from hypothermia (had she fallen into the water).
Granted, she had her accident in late March and these pictures were in January, but still...
Also, park maps are located here. Check out the first one - between the Delaware and the Seneca on the upper left hand side is where she went in.
More videos are here and on the other pages of my videos.
2 comments:
I was there.. She cost the tax payers a lot of money.. and by the way, YOUR tax dollars don't fund us (the volunteer rescue personnel). She was putting a hell of a lot of people in harms way, by violating the law of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In that it was a restricted trail. You don't own the fucking park. That was private land, donated. I truly hate people with that attitude. Stay home as far as I'm concerned. She should be charged with endangering every life that went in to bring her out. We're constantly going into that park to bring people out who go in unprepared for conditions. It's your responsibility to be prepared, not ours to do so for you. If you do something stupid, and get hurt, then you should have to pay all the expenses for your rescue. What the public doesn't know is that those fines not only pay for the rescue, but go into funds to make the park safer, and better equipped for emergencies.
Thanks for visiting my site, and more importantly, thanks for giving people a 2nd chance when they do things that just aren't smart.
I completely agree with you that she should have been charged for the rescue. Knowing what it is like up there (how wet the steps are on a nice summer day, for instance), I don't know how she got to where she was without crampons, and hopefully, she learned her lesson. I can also add that I don't think it would be out of line to ban her from the park.
In talking to people that work at the park, I had heard that rescuers were injured in trying to get her out, and I was curious if you could elaborate on any details that happened that day.
One of the issues that comes up every time that a rescue like this occurs (or can't occur) is how much danger a rescuer should put him or herself at risk for. I would be curious to know where you and your fellow co-workers would draw the line.
The entry you came to was a current events persuasive topic (the culmination of what we do in my class is to write a persuasive essay on something that matters to students). This was just meant to be a group discussion. While I try to pick topics from all disciplines, I always tell my students that I feel that they should go out and see the beauty of the world. In this, I think that in spring, summer, and early fall, Ricketts Glen can't be beat. However, in winter, I don't see myself going back and I see no reason to encourage non-professionals to go.
Thanks in advance for anything that you might respond with.
Thank you as well for making the park safer. I saw your fellow EMTs (maybe you) last fall pull a person off of Harrison Wright Falls in the park, and I saw the ordeal that your fellow professionals had to do this in nice weather. I can't imagine what you did on that winter day, but I am incredibly thankful to know that you do what you do for people.
Take care.
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