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AMERICAN FORK CANYON — A new emergency phone and security camera installed at Tibble Fork Reservoir will allow hikers a newfound sense of safety after a tragic avalanche that killed a BYU student in American Fork Canyon in 2014.
In February 2014, Brigham Young University student Ashleigh Cox, 21, died in a tragic avalanche accident in a steep gully while snowshoeing near Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon. Searchers said Cox was buried under 6 feet of snow for nearly 25 minutes. The tragedy stuck with responders.
"We know we did everything right, everything we could," said Lt. Dustin Mitchell of Lone Peak Fire District. "Sometimes it just doesn't turn out the way you want it to."
Cox's death sparked a call for change. First, a KSL investigation exposed a dispatch error — only law enforcement was being paged for emergencies in the canyon, while medical teams capable of search and rescue operations were not. Following the investigation, both are paged simultaneously.
Hikers now have safer means of helping themselves as well. Headed by Battalion Chief Joe McRae, Lone Peak Fire District contracted a project to install an emergency phone in the canyon.
"I felt I couldn't give up and, in honor of that young woman, I just didn't see that was an option," said McRae.
KSL-TV
The project took nearly two years of process, meetings and paperwork. But finally, the district was able to lease land for the phone from the U.S. Forest Service. And thanks to a $30,000 donation of equipment and labor from Live View Technologies, based on Orem, installation began on the emergency phone last month.
Firefighters and tech crews hiked to a peak in the canyon, installing a solar powered relay system along with a live camera. The location is high enough to see into the valley below, and the phone has a simple button anyone can push in case of emergency. With the newly installed camera, dispatchers can see what's happening.
The new installations save an estimated 15 to 20 minutes of driving time down the canyon for cell service in case of an emergency.
