In law school, I heard of a case in which a mule acted up and pitched its middle aged woman rider off and over the edge into the abyss. The legal issue was how to get a key piece of evidence in: that one of the muleskinners remarked spontaneously that the mule at fault had been troublesome ever since it had been demoted from lead mule to a less appealing position in the middle of the mule train.
News to me.
My housemate worked there.
In 2009 a woman was injured in a mule accident. She was ‘stabilized’ and helicoptered out, but I don’t recall the ultimate outcome. And it’s unclear if the mule survived.