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WASHINGTON COUNTY — A mountain biker on a trail near St. George was flown to the hospital after severely fracturing his leg in a bike crash Saturday. A drone being flown in the area temporarily prevented the responding medical helicopter’s arrival.
Shortly before 2 p.m., emergency personnel were dispatched on report of a man who crashed while mountain biking in the Bear Claw Poppy Reserve on the Green Valley Loop Trail.
The rider, a 22-year-old man, was riding with another man who called 911 immediately after the crash and guided responders to the location, St. George Fire Battalion Chief Robert Hooper said.
The rider was located off of the bike trails in an area that was inaccessible to the responding fire truck, so firefighters and EMTs made their way to the injured man on foot. The rider was found to have fractured his leg.
“We couldn’t even get our UTV anywhere close to where the men were located, and it even took a while on the phone with the other rider to actually identify where they were even located,” Hooper said.
Responders on scene, including Gold Cross paramedics, determined the rider’s inability to move coupled with the amount of hiking required to get him out necessitated a call to Intermountain Life Flight. A helicopter was launched and headed their way to assist.
Meanwhile, responders became aware that a BMX rider in the area was flying a drone and called off Life Flight temporarily until they could speak to the man, explaining that the drone was preventing the helicopter from flying into the area or landing.
Once they were able to reach the drone operator and explain the situation, he immediately landed the drone to make way for Life Flight in the staging area.
“It was obvious he wasn’t trying to film the incident or was being negligent in any way,” Hooper said of the drone operator, “because he wasn’t even aware the rescue was going on, but once we talked to him, he landed and secured the drone so that Life Flight could continue.”
