Posted on 03/04/2005 7:27:23 AM PST by FreedomCalls
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Four Pennsylvania men who were lost in the woods for 30 hours in December after going out of bounds at Killington Resort were sent bills Thursday for the cost of their rescue by state police.
Each of the men was assessed $4,177.87 to cover the cost of the rescue, said Lt. Donald Patch, whose barracks was in charge of the search Dec. 20, a night when temperatures plummeted to between 20 and 25 below zero.
``Let's face the facts: Some people get lost accidentally, things happen, they make a mistake and that's one thing,'' Patch said. ``When you're purposely skiing out of bounds, knowing you're going out of bounds, that's a different story, especially when you're not prepared.''
State police say the men from Perkasie, Pa., north of Philadelphia, were negligent because they ignored at least three large, fluorescent orange warning signs that they were off the trails.
The four men _ two on skis and two on snowboards _ from Perkasie, Pa., survived on gum, breath mints and snow melted over a fire they built with a lighter and some wet sticks of wood wrapped with a headband.
Michael Styer, Jared Raytek and Thomas Arnold, all 23, and Jared Rush, 22, were treated at Rutland Regional Medical Center after their ordeal in December. On Thursday, they got their bills.
A message left for Arnold, the only one of the men with a telephone listing in Perkasie, was not immediately returned.
The group skied out of bounds at the Killington ski area around 12:15 p.m. Dec. 19 and finally were reported missing by a friend 15 hours later. State police organized three dozen rescue workers and launched a search at 4:30 a.m. Dec. 20.
A Vermont National Guard helicopter finally spotted the men's campfire about 3 p.m. that day. The men and their rescuers emerged from the woods about two hours later.
Killington Resort, which contributed personnel, snowmobiles and a snow tractor to assist in the search, did not bill the men, spokesman Tom Horrocks said. The resorts have given up responsibility for searches and rescues to state police, he said.
``It's one thing when you get a bill from the (ski) area,'' he said. ``It's another when you get one from state police: `And here's your bill for being ignorant.'''
Killington posts signs warning skiers and snowboarders when they're approaching resort boundaries. There also are a series of signs beyond the border to tell people that they've crossed out of bounds and to turn back unless they're experienced in backcountry treks and are prepared for an emergency.
``There's plenty of warning,'' Horrocks said.
Three or four searches and rescues typically have to be organized each year, said David Dillon, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association. In the past, when the resorts themselves were responsible, the ski areas would occasionally bill people who got lost in the woods. Often, though, the bills went unpaid, he said.
The total $16,711.48 represents overtime for state police and the costs incurred by two local search and rescue teams that were called in, said Maj. James Baker. The cost of the National Guard helicopter was not passed along to the four men.
``We're reviewing one other case from this year. We're looking at that case to determine if we're going to do it,'' Baker said of a January rescue, also at Killington. ``In this case we determined that we believe their behavior put a lot of folks in danger and they knew what they were doing and as a result of that we billed them.''
Seems OK to me. They ignored the signs and got in trouble. Why should we all pay for their stupidity?
As a skiier, I've seen the warning signs. Did I ignore them and go off into dangerous terrain? Nope. I figure the ski area knows more about the mountain than I do.
Same thing should apply to mountain climbers, and other participants in high-risk sports activities. Screw up and you'll get rescued, but then you'll get a bill for the rescue. Seems fair to me.
If recues are going to be a billable proposition then why are we paying taxes.
To save you if you have an accident.
This was an on purpose.
I think they answered that question in the 2nd or 3rd paragraph.
I agree. Nothing worse than suburban doofuses who think they're going to challenge Nature, red in tooth and claw, and then find they aren't as tough as they thought they were. People need to understand that they're risking their lives when they do this, particularly in the West. I don't know how many times when I've been skiing in-bounds in Colorado (which by the way has fantastic woodlands in bounds, if you want a big Nature Experience) and have seen a single man leave the ski area and head toward a region full of ravines. When I see these things I wonder if anyone knows where he's gone, if his cell phone will work when he falls down a gully, if anyone will notice that he didn't come back to the condo that night and call the Ski Patrol. And then the Patrol is supposed to risk their lives looking for an idiot. What people should know is, if you get killed skiing out of bounds, they might find your bones in the spring, or they might not.
I agree. I'm almost surprised I didn't get a bill from Whistler for taking care of me after breaking my collarbone trying something that was clearly outside my ability (playing in the terrain park). Idiots who go out of bounds deliberately and have to be rescued, or otherwise knowingly put themselves in situations where they end up needing rescued, should foot the bill.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Here in San Antonio, the city charges the fool who bypasses the low water crossing barrier and gets stranded in high water. I say bill everyone who finds himself in harms way due to their ''doesn't apply to ME'' attitude.
As a former Rescue/EMT, I can tell you that most if not all government or private ambulance services will bill you if they carry you to the hospital. These services simply do not get enough money allocated from local governments.
Fire departments do the same thing. The squad I worked with billed people who were rescued from car accidents. Some didn't like it, but most understood that we had to find some way to pay for these services, or these services simply wouldn't exist.
What we told people when they questioned the bill was to file it with your car insurance, who will typically pay up. If the insurance didn't pay, well, we didn't force the person to pay.
Did they call for the rescue? It would seem that their rescue was started at someone else's request. What if they were just hanging out?
Then I guess they could have dismissed them when they arrived.
It's called personal responsibility and accountability - if you get in trouble doing something stupid, and have ignored the obvious warnings, why should the rest of us have to pay your bill?
To tell the truth, I resent these would-be "adventurers" getting their butts saved by my dime. I don't need dangerous thrills, and don't see why I should rescue thrill-seekers for FREE. They should at least pay a token sum.
I was glad to see them rescued, of course--but the whole ordeal was also angering. They go putting themselves in danger to get that rush and the view no one else gets...only they count on those who don't require the thrills to risk their own lives to save them. Thrill-seekers are like Hollywooders--they frost me.
Yeah that's why we then gave a grand sendoff of to JFK jr. ashes with US Navy ships and the Coast Guard involved.
Or the forces that were in action to retrieve he and his passangers bodies because HE was too stupid to admit he wasn't able to fly in those conditions.
I bet the Kennedy Clan didn't pay a damned dime for any of it.
Not a good comparison however, because the FAA usually monitors the jerk pilots. But you can't blame the passengers.
I was taking about dummies who take boats out into the sea without a care about the condition of their equipment.
They cause untold costs to be expended on their behalf.
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