ALPINE SLIDE ACCIDENT---JULY 2008

On July 16, 2008 My young adult children (Spencer, Dustin, and Stacy) and Dustin's wife (Elizabeth) and grandchild, (Joseph) and myself went to Park City to Alpine Slides for a day of fun. We had a number of hours of enjoyment, went out to eat, then returned to ride the Apine Slide ride. As we reached the front of the line for the ski jump ride to the top, ( I thought the workers were a little lax on informing us of the safety bar, how to get on as the ride quickly slid under us as we scrambled to get on and situate ourselves) we continued to visit amongst selves. We figured out the particulars as we went along. Once at the top of the mountain, we hurried to get in line for our turn down the slope. Excitement was intense, but fear became a villain as we listened to horror stories from those standing at the head of the line telling about how themselves or others had experienced the ride. One young man told of riding at a speed so fast that he was thrown off up on the slope into the bushes. As he skid along the cement surface (before landing with cuts and bruises in the bushes) his nylon jacket actually melted from the speed of his skidding on the cement. (I too had on a nylon jacket and later my daughter informed me she still had the jacket and it too had gotten melted!!!! (saved it as a warning! to listen to promptings!) The girl sitting on the top of the mountain at the beginning of the ride, when asked about it, said yes, lots of accidents, but if you use the breaks, you will be fine. We asked how she keeps track of the slide riders to which she replied, "I have this rearview mirror that I watch to see when they are at a certain point, then I send the next rider. I watched her and she was so busy visiting, that she never did use the ""rear-view mirror". HMMMM! I also noticed that she was not explaining how to use the brakes or how they worked (as people got on their carts), so I asked. The guys ahead of me said "You don't want to know!!!!!" I asked what they meant, to which they said it is a very "Mickey Mouse" type of mechanism!!! My fears by now were really escalating. Before I could ask anymore questions, it was my sons turn to go. The gentleman behind me and the one in front of my 2 boys had asked to go together so they could "race" each other down the hill. The worker said ok (unbelievable that she did not even comment on the danger of such action-racing!!!). The father and son were to follow me on the carts after mine--one in each lane. That put my sons--one in each lane as "partners" to go down, and me to go down by myself. My boys then said one of them would stay back with me to which I replied I would be fine with noone in the other lane. MISTAKE!! With not a single light down the whole nightime mountain ride--pitch black--and no worker body spaced along the ride to watch for trouble or be of help, and noone within yelling distance for the whole trip down the mountain, ( and knowing nothing of any of those dangers!), little did I know the horror that would face me!!
After my boys went down the mountain, I decided since she was not going to inform me how to use the breaks, I would ask. I carefully listened, repeating the directions. PULL BACK TO STOP, RELEASE PUSHING FORWARD TO GO! She said as long as I used the break I would be fine! As I got on and inched forward, I immediately tried the break--worked-no problem! I went a little further and breaked again--NO BREAK!!!! As my speed picked up I kept DESPERATELY trying to pull the break toward me to slow it, but it careened faster and faster very quickly jostled me at every turn!!! My head would actually slam into the cement embankment as I was tossed wildly, feet flying around in the air banging the sides while banging the sides too, and me hanging on for dear life!!! I was screaming for help by now with no response!! I held for dear life, because all I could think of was the guy flung up on the embankment and his nylon jacket melted!! I prayed so hard over and over again "PLEASE LET THE BREAKS WORK, OH PLEASE LET THE BREAKS WORK!!" EACH TIME MY HEAD SLAMMEED INTO THE CEMENT EMBANKMENT I WOULD SEE STARS AND GROAN WITH PAIN!! I really thought I was going to die on the ride and my only hope would be to hang on!! My shoulders banged the cement, feet banged the cement and my head banged the cement all at full force as speed increased to "luge" speed!!!!!!! Finally one last horrible slam and thud of my head whammed again against the cement and I found myself airborn, then crashing into the slides path for the next car. All I could think of was the 2 guys who wanted to "race" down the slope. A loud and long scream proceeded from my mouth. NO RESPONSE TO MY HORROR ON A PITCH BLACK MOONLESS NIGHT, AND NO ONE ANYWHERE TO BE SEEN!! I could not move, but realized I would surely be dead if I did not remove myself very quickly to the narrow 3- ft-STRIP between the riders. I was hurting terribly, dizzy, confused, but definite were the Holy Ghost warnings to get off the track fast! MIRACLE --- I CRAWLED OFF SECONDS BEFORE THE "RACERS ZOOMED PAST!!! I screamed to them that I needed help and could see them looking helplessly in all directions, unable to even see me!!! Of course I screamed a blood curding scream of fear at the thought of them crashing into me!!! Over the next few minutes, I realized that, even with all my screaming , that noone would hear or come to my rescue--not even the girl at the top with the rear view mirror!!! I laid there in pain, getting ill to my stomache too!! And freezing cold!! The night (even though it was July was horribly cold!! I had 2 jackets--the nylon top jacket having been borrowed from my daughter preceeding the ride.) As I shivered and no help after a very long section of time!!! ( My son later told me that my empty cart came down the hill, and noone even noticed that it was empty.) He immediately questioned the two "racers" behind me. They said that the only thing they knew is that they thought they heard someone yelling for help way up the mountain. My son then yelled back at the workers (who still had not even NOTICED my cart was empty) that someone was hurt up on the mountain and to get emergency crew sent up immediately!! (WHAT IF MY SON HAD NOT BEEN THERE TO NOTICE MY EMPTY CART...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Then he IMMEDIATELY RACED UP THE HILL. BY THIS TIME ANOTHER SEVERAL RIDERS HAD ZOOMED PAST ME (EACH TIME ELICITING SCREAMS OF FEAR THAT THEY WOULD CRASH INTO ME THERE ON THE NARROW SECTION OF GROUND BETWEEN THE 2 LANES OF ALPINE SLIDE RIDERS! I tried to struggle to sit up, hoping to somehow get over completely off the slides lanes. But was feeling quite ill as I stageringly tried to get up. I just knew someone would careen off as I did and crash into me with the force and kill me!! Then I heard the sweet voice of my son yelling was I ok? I was sobbing as I HAD BEEN since I flew off!! He quickly tried to comfort me and realized my terror as each cart sped past on each side of me! The workers finally made it to the top (a while after my son!) As I told them that the breaks did not work, he said, "oh, breaks don't work when it gets too cold and it is that cold tonite!!" To which I said "Then why don't they shut down the ride when that happens!" He said that the lanes get slipperier and then breaks cannot grab it. Spencer, my son, then asked them to shut down the ride as each passerby was terrifying his mom. They said, "no, we cannot. We have to let the people already on the top of the mountain come down." Spencer then, after several more requests for them to shut down the ride, said he would call the police if they would not stop it! He called the police and they arrived and stopped it!!!
They brought up a cart like the one I had just been thrown off of and told me they were going to take me down the mountain in it. My son and my response was NO WAY!!!! We are not using that!!!! I was horrified even at the sight of it!! After arguing that it was the way they have to do it, the paramedics arrived that my son had called!!! They took me down on a stretcher with neck secured and tightly bundled for neck and back injury. I shiver to think of being taken down on that cart without such protection against further neck or back injury! The paramedics commented on how slippery the slide run was as they tried to manuever me down. They had to walk on the strip in the middle, because of the extreme slipperiness. They raced me to the hospital in the ambulance. The baseball size lump which had immediately appeared on my forehead from all the crashing into the cement embankment, was throbbing and hurting sooooo bad!!! My back, neck , foot and knee were also in terrible pain!!! They immediately did x-rays, cat scans, etc, saying that they were sure that there would be a neck injury, concussion and broken ankle and perhaps the back injured from all my observed injury sites. I was TRULY blessed that night not to have any of those injuries they suspected. They still thought I had a severe neck injury and kept me for observation. Chills ran down my spine as they said that I could so easily have been killed from those injuries or had permanent bone damage. They too were shocked at the results! My lump got bigger still than even then, black and blue and even split open from force of swelling! Headaches, pain in back, jaw, , neck, shoulders and knee, have been my "lot" as a result of those injuries. My face had a huge lump even a few months later and went from a solidly purple swollen face for several months, to a lasting tenderness, numbness in ear, pain in jaw, and nerve damage in facial structure. My back and neck still require(2 yrs later) a visit to the Chiropractor every 3 weeks. Staff at the hospital told me that they receive patients from off the Alpine slide regularly, but said no ones injuries had been as bad as MINE! Hmmmmm! What if someone else came in on a stretcher from Alpine slide and was told " no ones injuries have been as bad as yours!" Would they then have to draw the sheet over their head...................?!? Cringe! My prayer is that I am the LAST worst!!!!! I am greatful every day for my life having been spared! It just reminds me of all the assignments, purposes, and missions that I have left to perform on this earth! I had, therefore, better not waste my life away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!