A woman called 911 Friday night at approximately 8:00 pm to report that she and a male companion had rolled their ATV in the area of Frye Mesa. Dispatched provided deputies and Thatcher Police with coordinates from the woman’s cell phone. When the rescue party got within half a mile of the coordinates they were not able to drive their vehicles due to the rough terrain and had to continue on foot.
The reporting party was still on the phone with dispatch and said she could see the lights of the vehicles in the distance. The rescue party found the Polaris Expedition sideways in a washed out ditch, which ran along the ATV trail. The woman was able to wave authorities down with a flashlight. Her male passenger was trapped in the vehicle. Although he was awake and speaking, he was reportedly intoxicated, which made it difficult for authorities communicate with him. With a thunderstorm approaching, they finally, they took his hands and pulled him out the front of the vehicle and carried him out of the ditch.
An ambulance was standing by at Frye Mesa since it couldn’t make it to the area of the accident. Fortunately, a Thatcher police officer arrived at the scene by taking another route and transported the injured man to the waiting ambulance. One officer stayed at the scene with the ATV, while the other officers went to get their vehicles. The woman said that she was not driving fast, but didn’t notice that part of the road was washed out and drove into the ditch thinking it was the road.
A deputy arrived in a vehicle and transported the woman to the ambulance. she reportedly had blood coming from her mouth and complained of pain and numbness in that area.
With the storm approaching they decided to leave the ATV at the scene until it passed. The accident victims apparently had six dogs with them. Five of them were recovered and taken to a shelter until somebody could pick them up. The sixth dog was found by the towing company when they went back to retrieve the ATV.
