As we were poking around Virginia City mountain roads last week, news of this fellow's death in the paper today caught my attention. Besides being a sad tale of a perhaps avoidable death, there is a lesson to be learned. The regular jeep trails are bad enough but driving on the lip of a pit mine is truly tempting fate.
Man killed when Jeep falls into old mining pit
by Karen Woodmansee
Appeal Staff Writer, kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com
May 23, 2007
From the Nevada Appeal
A 63-year-old California man on a rock-hunting trip with his wife was killed Tuesday when the Jeep he was driving rolled off a narrow trail in Virginia City into an abandoned mining pit.
The Storey County Sheriff's Office received the call about 3:50 p.m. According to Sgt. Kenneth Quirk, Alvin Ellwood Baldwin was trying to maneuver his vehicle on a narrow trail high above the Loring Pit when he lost control and rolled 500 feet into the pit.
The Loring Pit is located across State Route 341 from the Historic Fourth Ward School on the south end of town.
Quirk said Baldwin, of Occidental, Calif., was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
"They were up above the pit and that is on the very narrow roadway, it's more of a trail," he said. "The wife actually got out because it was too treacherous. He tried to do a maneuver and it rolled."
Quirk said the couple had driven to Nevada from Occidental and had gotten a room at a hotel in Carson City.
Quirk said the wife was taken to the sheriff's office where she called friends in California, who drove over to stay with her.
"It was horrible, simply horrible," he said.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |
| Desert raven riding a wild horse. Sorry the resolution is so small. It's almost impossible to see the raven but he's there right on the horse's withers. |
2 comments:
Very sad. I can imagine his wife, seeing it happen, helplessness, total loss.
We take risks (well, I do) without always knowing they are risks. I can't take myself out of the man's position because I haven't seen the jeep trail. Maybe I'd do it too, dunno.
Yes, this is a very sad and extremely personal event. It had to be unimaginably horrible for the woman to watch her husband plunge to his death. Even so, I think that it is important to include a caution about driving on the rim of that mine. It might save a life.
Personally, I find that pit scary even to look at but it is in town and that lulls people into a false sense of safety. In the back country it is quite clear that even a flat tire or twisted ankle could be fatal. On the other hand, I would hate to see the trail along the mine closed. Freedom to go at your own risk is a fine long standing Nevada tradition I cherish.
Post a Comment