Just saw this in today's free Paper
http://www.laconiadailysun.com/LaconiaPDF/2009/10/30L.pdfHikers must be prepared – or pay for rescue
CONCORD (AP) — Stranded with
a sprained ankle on a snow-covered
mountain, Eagle Scout Scott Mason
put his survival skills to work by
sleeping in the crevice of a boulder
and jump-starting evergreen fires
with hand sanitizer gel.
He put plastic bags inside his boots
to keep his feet dry as he sloshed
through mountain runoff hidden
beneath waist-deep snow. After three
cold days last April, rescue crews spotted
him hiking toward the summit of
Mount Washington, the Northeast’s
highest mountain.
New Hampshire officials praised his
resourcefulness. So grateful was he
for his rescuers that Mason, 17, sent
$1,000 to the state.
Sometime later, New Hampshire
sent him a bill: $25,734.65 for the cost
of rescuing him.
New Hampshire is one of eight
states with laws allowing billing for
rescue costs, but only New Hampshire
has made frequent attempts to do
so — even strengthening its law last
year to allow the suspension of hiking,
fishing and driver’s licenses of those
who don’t pay, according to an Associated
Press review.
National search and rescue organizations
insist just the possibility of
being billed is dangerous policy. Hikers
may delay calling for help while they
think about the cost, and that could
put them — and the mostly volunteer
corps of rescuers — at greater risk.
Other states with laws allowing
them to recoup costs rarely, if ever,
enforce them, largely for that reason,
the AP found.
“If it had happened in Colorado, he
would have been applauded for being
able to survive for three days,” said
Paul “Woody” Woodward, president of
Colorado’s Alpine Rescue Team. “New
Hampshire is way out on their own on
this one.”
New Hampshire officials counter
that being properly prepared — not
the size of the scout’s bill — should be
the message about visiting wilderness
areas. And, fish and game officials
say, many of the state’s trailheads are
posted with signs warning hikers they
may be billed for rescue costs if they
aren’t properly prepared.
Mason, now an 18-year-high school senior, from Halifax,
Mass., has hired a lawyer to try to negotiate a settlement.
Officials said he was found to be negligent because
he veered off the marked path, was unprepared for melting
snow that made a shortcut perilous and went up the
mountain with an injured ankle, not down.
The bill included more than $24,000 for a helicopter
and labor provided by state fish and game offi-
cers. Volunteers provided their time at no charge.
Three states besides New Hampshire — Hawaii,
Oregon and Maine — have general laws allowing
agencies to bill for rescues. Only Maine has
attempted to recoup money a handful of times and
the bills were never paid. California, Vermont, Colorado
and Idaho have laws allowing state agencies to
bill in limited circumstances, but the laws are rarely
enforced — and when they are, draw a firestorm of
protest from search and rescue groups.
Two years ago, the fire department in Golden,
Colo., rescued a hiker from Kansas who had sprained
his ankle and later billed him for $5,135. The outcry
from national search and rescue groups influenced
the city to change its policy and settle with the hiker
for 10 percent of the bill.
Only New Hampshire has consistently billed people.
Last year, lawmakers increased the likelihood of being
billed when they lowered the legal standard from reckless
to negligent to make it easier to collect.
Records obtained by The Associated Press from a
Freedom of Information Act request found that New
Hampshire spent $413,543 on 275 rescue missions
over the past two years. The state issued 16 bills for
rescues totaling $41,435 — with Mason’s $25,000
bill the largest. The state spent far more, $59,426, on
a December 2007 search that was not billed. In that
case, the body of the 70-year-old hunter was found
four months later. His family was not billed.
“We’re not going out there with the intent to bill
everyone,” insists Fish and Game Maj. Timothy
Acerno.
Policies vary across the country on penalizing
people who ignore weather warnings, don’t carry
flashlights on long hikes, fail to leave itineraries, ski
out of bounds or are otherwise unprepared or act
irresponsibly.
If Mason had gotten lost in a National Park, his
rescue would have been free, said David Barna, chief
of public affairs for the National Park Service.
New Hampshire officials stress they only bill those
who are negligent.
Acerno said that experienced search and rescue
volunteers and fish and game staff consider what
a reasonable person would have done and measure
the person’s actions against a hiker responsibility
code that calls for knowing the terrain and conditions,
taking proper gear, leaving an itinerary and
turning back if conditions change. The attorney general’s
office makes the final determination.
Hannah Groom, a 21-year-old college student from
Cumberland, Maine, learned the hard way.
While grateful for rescuers’ help, Groom said the
$3,360 bill sent to her and a friend was steep for
one night on New Hampshire’s Baldface Mountain
in May. The two had planned a day hike, but took
a wrong trail. She blames confusing trail markers.
“I do not believe that charging two young adults such
a high fee for a mistake caused by poor trail markers
is warranted,” she wrote The AP in an e-mail.
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