The
Guardian Angel trip was attended by Jack Knox, Bob Sumner, Stephen Padgett, Bob
Wyka, Kent Santelman, George Toby, Judy Ware, Asher Waxman, Vic Henney, Sue
Wyman, John McCully, Wendy Ruess, Jay Holshuh, Susan Leverton, Barbara Cohen,
Barbara Hoffman, Jim Murphy, Owen Malloy, Tom Scott, and Dale Van Dalsem.
Stephen Padgett carpooled to Zion with me, planning to meet his wife Charyl,
and her sister Dawn Hamilton, out visiting from Chicago. Charyl and Dawn were
sightseeing in and around Zion while Stephen climbed with us. They met after
the climb to drive home together. Stephen had a great new job as editor of
the monthly put out by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, but
we daydreamed - about how one might find a job that would enable one to spend
more time in southern Utah and the four corners area. He LOVED southern
Utah. Stephen had read everything Ed Abbey and Tony Hillerman wrote. We
talked about these authors, as well as his apprehensions about becoming a
father, his love for music, writing, and conservation. Stephen was an ardent
conservationist who loved the Monkey Wrench Gang. I didn't bring up the Desert
Protection Act, knowing we'd be on opposite sides, but knowing that
we'd |
probably
respect each other's position - we both loved the desert and knew it well.
A mile outside the park, just 2.5 miles from the SGA roadhead, Charyl, who was
driving, apparently turned to Stephen in the passenger seat and took her eyes
off the narrow, paved, unstriped, but straight Kolob road. The right front tire
of their nearly new Tercel caught in the soft shoulder. Charyl, startled,
cramped the wheel left, and the car skidded across the road and off the 60'
cliff some 10' from the edge of the road. ay and Susan were driving behind
them and saw the whole thing. Mine was the next vehicle, with Tom Scott right
behind me. Tom drove on to get help. Jay Holshuh and Barbie Hoffman found a way
down the class 4 cliff in the dark. Susan and I followed soon after. Jack and
Kent and others came down quickly. The car had flipped and rolled upside
down, facing downhill, with interior and headlights still on. Charyl was alive,
vocal, logical, and helped direct her rescue from her position hanging upside
down in her seat belt. Stephen, unbelted, was very dead beside her. Dawn was
hanging from her seat belt in the back seat, moaning, unconscious, and
obviously hurt very badly internally. She died as we removed her. The Hurricane
Fire |
Department
(HFD) truck, an ambulance, and several fireman, most of whom obviously had
paramedic training, arrived in an unbelievably short time. Virgin and the
farmhouse where Tom stopped are 5.5 miles away, and Hurricane is another 6.5
miles. Seemed like 15 or 20 minutes after Tom sped away that the HFD was there,
in force, with trained people and equipment, charging up through the
cactus. Jay, Barbie, and several of the good people from the HFD loaded a
still talking Charyl on the ambulance, while I helped with the other stretcher
carrying Dawn, who was still receiving CPR although all vital signs were gone.
The ambulance sped away and we numbly climbed back into our vehicles, thinking
we'd at least helped save Charyl, and probably her unborn child. Phone calls
Sunday morning revealed that Charyl died on the way to the hospital. Some
of us have been very troubled by this horrible nightmare. I've broken down many
times; vivid freeze frame flashbacks of a nightmare 8 years ago on the Kahiltna
glacier occur more frequently now. The senseless and one-in-a-million and WHAT
IF aspects haunt me. A second's inattention at the wheel and 3+ vital,
beautiful people are gone. |