seems like lots of fatalities lately

[dunefreak]

It's never good to hear about these. I was wondering if anyone heard about this guy. I ran across it trying to find out what happened with the accident over the weekend.

:mischevious:

Coroner case #70080323--On February 12, 2008 at about 5:00 pm, Lawrence Castro, a 64 year old resident of Hughson, CA, was driving a Yamaha ATV when he lost control and rolled the vehicle in the open desert of Dumont Dunes OHV area, approximately 4 miles north of State Highway 127. Paramedics responded and pronounced him dead at the scene. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the collision. [021408 0716 SY]

[Mr. Edgy]

It's never good to hear about these. I was wondering if anyone heard about this guy. I ran across it trying to find out what happened with the accident over the weekend.

:mischevious:

Coroner case #70080323--On February 12, 2008 at about 5:00 pm, Lawrence Castro, a 64 year old resident of Hughson, CA, was driving a Yamaha ATV when he lost control and rolled the vehicle in the open desert of Dumont Dunes OHV area, approximately 4 miles north of State Highway 127. Paramedics responded and pronounced him dead at the scene. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the collision. [021408 0716 SY]

Something happened yesterday too! As we were leaving, an ambulance from Baker was hot footing it up the enterance road. Followed by a Paramedic wagon from the fire department, and two CHP cruisers. I thought that the CHP cruisers were a weird sight. I have no idea what happened. There was literally no one there this weekend.

[Richard Cheese]

don't know what happened there

i used to stress over the amount of fatalities at oceano, until someone pointed this out to me

take the number of people that go to Dumont for the entire year (probably close to a few hundred thousand???) then take the number of fatalities at the riding area for the year

go on the internet and look for cities in the US with similiar population demographics compared to the number of people that visited Dumont in the year

The number of fatalities and deaths is going to be MUCH higher for those cities with similar population numbers...

any time there is a fatality in a riding area, it's sad, as it probably could have been avoided. On top of that those stats are looked at very hard by our opposers, and also used in the assault against us and our riding areas.

Very sad indeed

RIP

[SanDollars]

One death a year is too many.

BUT we play in a high risk sport and there will be accidents. No one is holding a gun to our heads. Most of us are adventure seekers and with that mentality comes risk.

JMO

[CaptNkllm]

thats why I ride with a full body cushion wrap and I cone off my area :mischevious: sry I couldnt pass that up..

prayers out to the family

Capt

[indasand]

Always sad to hear...

[stalteri]

Something happened yesterday too! As we were leaving, an ambulance from Baker was hot footing it up the enterance road. Followed by a Paramedic wagon from the fire department, and two CHP cruisers. I thought that the CHP cruisers were a weird sight. I have no idea what happened. There was literally no one there this weekend.

we must have left @ the same time. I knew it wasn't good when I saw the second CHP

[Mr. Edgy]

We left around 11:15am. I saw the CHP cruisers as we were headed south on 127, 11:30?

Where did you guys camp? :mischevious:

[~JILL~]

GD.com listed two more fatalities over this past weekend.25 year old woman and a teenager, two seperate accidents on the same day and both involving a Rhino.

[dinicolady]

Damn!!

[Kitcat]

That's sad to hear.

[1320]

don't know what happened there

i used to stress over the amount of fatalities at oceano, until someone pointed this out to me

take the number of people that go to Dumont for the entire year (probably close to a few hundred thousand???) then take the number of fatalities at the riding area for the year

go on the internet and look for cities in the US with similiar population demographics compared to the number of people that visited Dumont in the year

The number of fatalities and deaths is going to be MUCH higher for those cities with similar population numbers...

any time there is a fatality in a riding area, it's sad, as it probably could have been avoided. On top of that those stats are looked at very hard by our opposers, and also used in the assault against us and our riding areas.

Very sad indeed

RIP

I actually tried to do some ruff estimates awhile back. I used numbers from a ranger on thanksgiving day nd compared to the las vegas metro area. It appeared to be about 180 more times to be killed at dumont then las vegas......That was not counting natural deaths, just deaths over the same week end. I think I used 1.7 million people for the lv population but I cant remeber forsure. BUT DAM 180 more times mor elikely to DIE......

[dune_RIDER777]

Well when Four Stroke Wars were over with, I was racing to the left of banshee from whare (FSW) was going on, and there was this kid doing jumps at the top whare people slow down and turn around to head down the hill. He didn't even have a spotter, he shouldnt have been there any ways. The parents were there at the top the hill sitting there watching their kid do it. I almost ran into him twice. I had to slam on my brakes and almost indo. It had to b my sixth time runnin up the hill and i see him off the quad laying on the hill. im not sure what happend to him but he fell off obviously. Stuff like that you know........ you would think the parents would say "hey dont jump here because there is people cumming at fast speeds and have to slow down up here." well i just hope people will have more commen sence. thats how most people probably get hurt. what im trying to say is be safe be responsible and look out for bad situations that can be avoided.

[dune_RIDER777]

Well when Four Stroke Wars were over with, I was racing to the left of banshee from whare (FSW) was going on, and there was this kid doing jumps at the top whare people slow down and turn around to head down the hill. He didn't even have a spotter, he shouldnt have been there any ways. The parents were there at the top the hill sitting there watching their kid do it. I almost ran into him twice. I had to slam on my brakes and almost indo. It had to b my sixth time runnin up the hill and i see him off the quad laying on the hill. im not sure what happend to him but he fell off obviously. Stuff like that you know........ you would think the parents would say "hey dont jump here because there is people cumming at fast speeds and have to slow down up here." well i just hope people will have more commen sence. thats how most people probably get hurt. what im trying to say is be safe be responsible and look out for bad situations that can be avoided. Pray to familly and friends.

[dunefreak]

Well when Four Stroke Wars were over with, I was racing to the left of banshee from whare (FSW) was going on, and there was this kid doing jumps at the top whare people slow down and turn around to head down the hill. He didn't even have a spotter, he shouldnt have been there any ways. The parents were there at the top the hill sitting there watching their kid do it. I almost ran into him twice. I had to slam on my brakes and almost indo. It had to b my sixth time runnin up the hill and i see him off the quad laying on the hill. im not sure what happend to him but he fell off obviously. Stuff like that you know........ you would think the parents would say "hey dont jump here because there is people cumming at fast speeds and have to slow down up here." well i just hope people will have more commen sence. thats how most people probably get hurt. what im trying to say is be safe be responsible and look out for bad situations that can be avoided.

yep I agree. I'd say about 99% of the time most of these fatal accidents can be avoided. BE CAREFUL, people.

[Richard Cheese]

I actually tried to do some ruff estimates awhile back. I used numbers from a ranger on thanksgiving day nd compared to the las vegas metro area. It appeared to be about 180 more times to be killed at dumont then las vegas......That was not counting natural deaths, just deaths over the same week end. I think I used 1.7 million people for the lv population but I cant remeber forsure. BUT DAM 180 more times mor elikely to DIE......

sounds a little off to me :eatdrink021:

what numbers were you using? That just doesnt seem right to me...

.did you take the entire amount of people (rough estimate) that go to dumont throughout the year, as well as the number of fatals, and compare that to the number of people in the LV metro area, and the number of UNNATURAL DEATHS (shootings, traffic accidents, labor accidents etc)?

for example, in 2000, Oceano Dunes had roughly 1.2 million visitors. While i couldnt find the number of fatalies for that same year, i personally know it has never been more than 15. I will use 20 though as an example

for a population of 1.2 million, and only have 20 deaths contributed to non-natural causes is pretty low..for instance....the murder rate in los angeles in 2006 was 480...roughly 13 for every 100,000 people...so for 1.2 million that would be 156...now this is just murders mind you, not traffic accidents, work related accidents, etc

so 156 murders compared to only 20 fatalities...you are almost 8 times more likely to die by murder in Los Angeles than by an off road related fatality in Oceano ..

[dunefreak]

sounds a little off to me

what numbers were you using? That just doesnt seem right to me...

.did you take the entire amount of people (rough estimate) that go to dumont throughout the year, as well as the number of fatals, and compare that to the number of people in the LV metro area, and the number of UNNATURAL DEATHS (shootings, traffic accidents, labor accidents etc)?

for example, in 2000, Oceano Dunes had roughly 1.2 million visitors. While i couldnt find the number of fatalies for that same year, i personally know it has never been more than 15. I will use 20 though as an example

for a population of 1.2 million, and only have 20 deaths contributed to non-natural causes is pretty low..for instance....the murder rate in los angeles in 2006 was 480...roughly 13 for every 100,000 people...so for 1.2 million that would be 156...now this is just murders mind you, not traffic accidents, work related accidents, etc

so 156 murders compared to only 20 fatalities...you are almost 8 times more likely to die by murder in Los Angeles than by an off road related fatality in Oceano ..

:beer_bang: Oh for Christ's sake, just go duning and be careful! :eatdrink021: Does that number, whatever it may be, matter to you when you are out there having fun? No it doesn't. We all know it is dangerous and most of us take extra care when out there.

[Mr. Edgy]

Well when Four Stroke Wars were over with, I was racing to the left of banshee from whare (FSW) was going on, and there was this kid doing jumps at the top whare people slow down and turn around to head down the hill. He didn't even have a spotter, he shouldnt have been there any ways. The parents were there at the top the hill sitting there watching their kid do it. I almost ran into him twice. I had to slam on my brakes and almost indo. It had to b my sixth time runnin up the hill and i see him off the quad laying on the hill. im not sure what happend to him but he fell off obviously. Stuff like that you know........ you would think the parents would say "hey dont jump here because there is people cumming at fast speeds and have to slow down up here." well i just hope people will have more commen sence. thats how most people probably get hurt. what im trying to say is be safe be responsible and look out for bad situations that can be avoided. Pray to familly and friends.

Nice command of the English language!!! :eatdrink021:

(SP)???????????????????????????? :beer_bang:

[dunefreak]

Nice command of the English language!!! :beer_bang:

(SP)????????????????????????????

jeez, you're so edgy! :eatdrink021:

[Richard Cheese]

Oh for Christ's sake, just go duning and be careful! Does that number, whatever it may be, matter to you when you are out there having fun? No it doesn't. We all know it is dangerous and most of us take extra care when out there.

did you say something??

:beer_bang:

i could give a RATZ AZZ about personally...but unfortunately, our sport is under constant attack and criticism by anti-access groups, and it is just good to know arguments like this off the top of your head. it's kind of like a nice way to tell them to STFU with facts and figures.

its always good to be able to counter your enemies arguements decisively. :eatdrink021:

[1320]

If I remeber correctly, I used the numbers from the same weekend. Comparing the same three days in both locations. The dunes had either 3 or 6 fatailities I think, so maybe it was a essepecially bad weekend. Obviously doing the yearly numbers would be much better, but I ve never seen dumont numbers for the year. The estimates are probably fairly crude too, since no one counts the people actualy going in.

Its dangerous, so is going to work, becareful.

[chefwally]

Oh for Christ's sake, just go duning and be careful! Does that number, whatever it may be, matter to you when you are out there having fun? No it doesn't. We all know it is dangerous and most of us take extra care when out there.

I have to agree with you! Yes it is sad when we have a death in our wonderful sport and we all send prayers and feel bad for the surviving family members. However, when you are so concerned that you start throwing numbers together to try to convince yourself it is still safe out there then it is time to stop riding. My brother was a multiple off road world champion who was injured in 1981, spent 18 years in a coma and then died on his bday in 1999. I celebrate his life every year by goin sand dunning, his love. If you take every precaution we can and have fun thats all you can ask for. I prefer not to keep a tally and keep that worry in the back of my head. If you want to do some research find out why 83% of all injuries that happened at Dumont and treated at Las Vegas and surrounding area hospitals in 2007 involved alcohol and/or drugs? That is information that hurts us all. Anti dune activists find this stuff out and use it to close us down saying look we can save the enviroment and human life if the area was closed. How about people being responsible and go out and have fun, you don't have to be drunk to sand dune and have fun. In reality that means that only 2-3 deaths happen a year in which we could call it an "accident", this poor guy sounds like one of those, at least he passed doin what he loved which will not happen to most of us.

[White Rhino]

I have to agree with you! Yes it is sad when we have a death in our wonderful sport and we all send prayers and feel bad for the surviving family members. However, when you are so concerned that you start throwing numbers together to try to convince yourself it is still safe out there then it is time to stop riding. My brother was a multiple off road world champion who was injured in 1981, spent 18 years in a coma and then died on his bday in 1999. I celebrate his life every year by goin sand dunning, his love. If you take every precaution we can and have fun thats all you can ask for. I prefer not to keep a tally and keep that worry in the back of my head. If you want to do some research find out why 83% of all injuries that happened at Dumont and treated at Las Vegas and surrounding area hospitals in 2007 involved alcohol and/or drugs? That is information that hurts us all. Anti dune activists find this stuff out and use it to close us down saying look we can save the enviroment and human life if the area was closed. How about people being responsible and go out and have fun, you don't have to be drunk to sand dune and have fun. In reality that means that only 2-3 deaths happen a year in which we could call it an "accident", this poor guy sounds like one of those, at least he passed doin what he loved which will not happen to most of us.

well said! if we all just dune carefully and watch out for one another (which most of the peeps on DDR do) it would be a safer friendlier sport.

Of course there are always accidents, and you never know when its your card to be punched. All you can hope is that you lived your life to the fullest and had a great life. I personally think most the cats here on DDR do just that.

Prayers to anyone that lost a loved one in our sport.

[raspadoo]

sounds a little off to me

what numbers were you using? That just doesnt seem right to me...

.did you take the entire amount of people (rough estimate) that go to dumont throughout the year, as well as the number of fatals, and compare that to the number of people in the LV metro area, and the number of UNNATURAL DEATHS (shootings, traffic accidents, labor accidents etc)?

for example, in 2000, Oceano Dunes had roughly 1.2 million visitors. While i couldnt find the number of fatalies for that same year, i personally know it has never been more than 15. I will use 20 though as an example

for a population of 1.2 million, and only have 20 deaths contributed to non-natural causes is pretty low..for instance....the murder rate in los angeles in 2006 was 480...roughly 13 for every 100,000 people...so for 1.2 million that would be 156...now this is just murders mind you, not traffic accidents, work related accidents, etc

so 156 murders compared to only 20 fatalities...you are almost 8 times more likely to die by murder in Los Angeles than by an off road related fatality in Oceano ..

I know, it doesn't matter, BUT you are comparing an annual total of visitors against a daily total of residents of LA. the correct comparison would require you to multiply your 20 by 365 so it would be 7300 compared to 480. Duning is dangerous, education through this type of websight is invaluable when it comes to dune safety.

Read, learn, teach, apply what you learn and always assume the "other guy" knows absolutly nothing...

[Richard Cheese]

I have to agree with you! Yes it is sad when we have a death in our wonderful sport and we all send prayers and feel bad for the surviving family members. However, when you are so concerned that you start throwing numbers together to try to convince yourself it is still safe out there then it is time to stop riding. My brother was a multiple off road world champion who was injured in 1981, spent 18 years in a coma and then died on his bday in 1999. I celebrate his life every year by goin sand dunning, his love. If you take every precaution we can and have fun thats all you can ask for. I prefer not to keep a tally and keep that worry in the back of my head. If you want to do some research find out why 83% of all injuries that happened at Dumont and treated at Las Vegas and surrounding area hospitals in 2007 involved alcohol and/or drugs? That is information that hurts us all. Anti dune activists find this stuff out and use it to close us down saying look we can save the enviroment and human life if the area was closed. How about people being responsible and go out and have fun, you don't have to be drunk to sand dune and have fun. In reality that means that only 2-3 deaths happen a year in which we could call it an "accident", this poor guy sounds like one of those, at least he passed doin what he loved which will not happen to most of us.

im not as concerned with the amount of deaths, as I am the anti-access groups using these fatalities AGAINST US to take our riding areas away.

many arguments about safety in our riding areas have been brought up by the Sierra Club and their little hate-monger sub groups.

as stated before

its good to know these things off the top of your head, so, when the time comes, you can give that little factoid to your govt elected official when he/she is voting on closing one of your favortie riding areas

it never ceases to amaze me how many people off-road, but are not aware of the fine line our sport walks every day