Bridge Strike
The local take:
And while the Miles wannabes were on here flaming the kid before he got cut loose....
...Miles was headed to the hospital to make sure he was going to be OK.
Maybe you jamokes should take a few notes.
(and butters, the bonfire is over there <---, incase you needed directions back)
Day 2 Story
A community rescue
Monday's BASE jump accident first of its kind
By Cass Friedman and Jared S. HopkinsTimes-News writers
Last weekend, BASE jumpers from across the country and outside the U.S. visited Twin Falls for the adrenaline rush at the third annual Perrine Bridge Festival. Over three days, from sunrise to sunset, dozens of people made hundreds of jumps from the bridge, and not one suffered as much as a scratch.
Then, one day later, history was made.
In what local officials have called unprecedented, the local rescue teams were dispatched Monday to recover a BASE jumper hanging for two hours from the Perrine Bridge on Monday. And because the unit is made up of volunteers, officials said the cost to taxpayers was next to nothing.
At about 7 p.m. Monday, Andrew J. Karnowski, 20, and Kurt Gregory climbed over the railing. Gregory said he rushed Karnowski on their jump because he wanted to go shopping afterward. So, Karnowski, who was attempting a jump with his chute unpacked, gave the countdown despite northeastern gusts Monday blowing up to 22 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
When Gregory landed on the south bank of the Snake River his friend was no longer beside him.
Karnowski's chute caught "the wrong wind at the wrong time," Gregory surmised. The chute snagged on a beam under the bridge, swinging Karnowski into its cold metal face 150 feet below the bridge. Although he wore a helmet, the collision resulted in a broken arm, ankle and multiple lacerations on his body.
"There was nothing I could do," Gregory said. "He was stuck. I had no idea how much the canopy was hung up on the catwalk cables. I figured it was secure, but how did I know?
"I just knew time was of the essence for someone to get to him."
Calls were made to 911 by several witnesses. Two and a half hours passed with Karnowski dangling from the bridge before Twin Falls County Search and Rescue volunteers and Lower Magic Valley Paramedic SORT Team members safely lowered him below to a boat in the Snake River.
Karnowski recalls none of it.
"Andrew can't even remember the jump," said Gregory, who was with Karnowski at the hospital Tuesday. "He knows who he is. He can't remember hanging in the harness for two hours. Maybe it's just trauma and shock. He hit his head. Maybe that's why he can't remember anything."
Rescue efforts were completed just after 9 p.m. Karnowski was then life flighted to St. Luke's Magic Valley Regional Medical Center.
About 20 people from the county sheriff's office and a hospital emergency team were on site, said Twin Falls County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Nancy Howell.
Howell, a county employee for nearly a decade, said she could not recall a previous time when the unit was dispatched to retrieve a jumper in the middle of a jump. Normally, responders attend to injured or killed jumpers on the ground or in the water.
"He was hung up on the bridge," said Howell. "Usually we don't have them where they're hung up anywhere."
There was no cost to having the search and rescue unit dispatched because they are volunteers. She said the only cost attested to taxpayers is "some overtime" since the county deputies on site were are already on duty.
Karnowski, a Twin Falls resident who recently moved from Kansas, will not be charged with anything. Nor will he pay for any overtime. Medical staff at the hospital told him Tuesday they may release him by this morning. He is able to move about with the help of a walker.
- Harvey
BLiNC Magazine Team Member
"You're a pro BASE jumper? I'm SO much better than you!"
