An 18-year-old girl was airlifted from Colvig Silver Camp to Mercy Hospital on Thursday after a sedan was left in neutral and rolled over her.
The vehicle began to roll down an incline, and when the teen realized it wasn’t in park, she attempted to stop it, but her leg got caught in the wheel well, according to a news release from Upper Pine River Fire Protection District.
After being rolled over by the vehicle, her leg suffered a serious injury that triggered an arterial bleed. Staff members at Colvig Silver Camp northeast of Durango acted quickly by applying a tourniquet to the leg.
“They saved her life,” said Bruce Evans, Upper Pine Fire chief. “She would have bled out by the time we arrived if it weren’t for them.”
Upper Pine Fire responded to a similar incident on Tuesday in which a woman was run over by her own truck and killed. Evans said it is unusual to have two similar incidents involving such rare circumstances within the same week.
The fire department responded with an ambulance, a paramedic unit and three personnel about 8 p.m. Upon arriving, crews immediately summoned a Flight For Life helicopter.
The teen was not identified. Evans said she will undergo a vascular surgery in hopes of repairing her leg.
glanderyou@durangoherald.com
