Just say no to studded tracks!
Had a buddy lose most of his calf to a studded track in high school, swore I would never run a studded track after that.
Nothin compared to this poor kid below from last year.
Studdin up Firehouse just may not be worth it.
Snowmobile Accident Tears Off Maine Man's Leg
AIMEE DOLLOFF
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
It was instinct that allowed Alison Jones, 21, of Hermon to remain calm last weekend when an acquaintance lost part of his leg in a snowmobile accident.
Jones reacted quickly when 19-year-old Brandon Blanchette's left leg was severed below the knee by the snowmobile. Grabbing her boyfriend's belt, she made a tourniquet around Blanchette's leg to stop the bleeding.
"I figured I had to do something or else this poor kid is going to stand there and just bleed to death," Jones, a veterinary assistant, said Thursday in a phone interview.
She had gone with her boyfriend to join some friends who were planning to race snowmobiles last Sunday near Pullen Road in Hermon.
Blanchette had lifted up the back of one of the sleds to clear the track of snow. When Jones' boyfriend revved the engine, a stud on the track caught on Blanchette's baggy clothing and pulled his left leg into the track.
"That caused his leg to get stuck inside the sled [and] it just, like, threw his leg back out again," Jones said. "It shot it into the air and it just flew into the woods. Brandon was actually still standing in back of the sled when it shot the leg out."
Several people at the scene stood in shock for a moment before the majority of them ran into a nearby house, leaving Jones, her boyfriend and Blanchette outside, Jones recalled.
"Brandon has this horrifying look on his face and he's standing there without a leg," she said.
Jones said her boyfriend also appeared frozen in shock and she realized she needed to take action.
"I lifted up his shirt and grabbed the belt off his waist," she said.
She used it to make a tourniquet around Blanchette's leg before they carried him into the nearby house. Blanchette, of Garland, was taken by ambulance to the Dexter airport and a LifeFlight helicopter flew him to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
The track ripped Blanchette's leg off midcalf with such force that his shinbone stabbed into his upper arm, she said. Blanchette had surgery earlier this week to remove the piece of leg bone from his arm, she said.