SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A teenager was rescued from Spanish Fork Canyon by helicopter after a rock fell on him and broke his leg while he was hiking, according to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
The search and rescue operation took place at Red Ledges in Diamond Fork on Friday night.
The sheriff’s office on Saturday shared video of the operation, which began at 7:22 p.m. on June 14 when multiple agencies responded to a call of an injured hiker.
UCSO Search and Rescue, Spanish Fork Fire & EMS and the Utah Department of Public Safety responded to the canyon to rescue the 16-year-old from Provo, whose femur was broken by a falling rock. The teen was unable to exit the canyon due to the injury, prompting a 3-hour rescue using the DPS helicopter.
The boy was successfully rescued on Friday night and taken to an ambulance that transported him to the hospital for surgery.
Hospital images shared by UCSO showed the severity of the teen’s femur fracture.
The boy’s condition, including whether he had already undergone surgery, was not released Saturday.
Search and rescue teams in Utah have been working seemingly nonstop as summer approaches, saving hikers who were stranded sometimes for hours and sometimes for days, and some who called for help but managed to evade search teams. and rescue because they did not stay in one place.
And Saturday’s incident wasn’t even the first this year in which a hiker was injured by a falling rock.
Utah SAR officials have advised hikers to do their research before setting out on the state’s trails and to carry supplies in case they get lost or injured, specifically food and water.
“Energy bars, or something like that,” Utah County Search and Rescue incident manager Steve Gorrell told 2News in an interview in April. “Calories can help you because they will also help you stay warm at night. Then having plenty of water or a water filter.”
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However, most rescue efforts this season have been in and around the state’s bodies of water, where Utahns and visitors looking to beat the heat have been swept away by spring runoff.
Some cases ended with successful rescues. However, tragically some did not.
The weekend before the Spanish Fork Canyon rescue, two people died in separate Utah canyons. In Alpine’s Deer Creek Canyon, a 19-year-old went missing and was found dead the next day.
The same day his body was discovered, a 12-year-old boy visiting Provo Canyon fell into the Provo River. He was pulled from the water four miles downstream and later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misidentified the teen as a girl.
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