A pre-dawn ATV crash on Buck Hollow Road turned into a difficult rescue Monday morning after riders reported one person ejected, another with a broken arm, and possibly a third injured person.
Scioto County deputies and Valley EMS were called shortly before 4:30 a.m.
Almost immediately, responders realized the terrain and injuries could make this a major rescue.
EMS requested a medical helicopter.
Then the weather shut that option down.
Air Evac units in both Portsmouth and Brown County declined because of weather conditions. HealthNet checked conditions and also declined. MedFlight was contacted next, but it too was unable to fly because of the weather.
That left ground crews to reach the injured riders the hard way.
Stranded on the Hill
Responders used GPS coordinates from the 911 call to work toward the crash site.
Deputies eventually located a group of four-wheeler riders and learned an injured woman was still on top of a hill.
A side-by-side was requested to help reach her, and Valley firefighters were already heading in with one.
Dispatchers had repeatedly warned the callers not to move from their location because responders had their coordinates and moving could make them harder to find or worsen their injuries.
By about 5:30 a.m., deputies reported they had made contact with the woman and that everyone was making their way down the hill.
The available report does not give an update on the patients’ conditions or say where they were ultimately transported.
What started as an ATV rollover became a roughly hour-long rescue complicated by darkness, rough terrain, multiple injuries, and weather bad enough to ground every medical helicopter responders tried to call.
