Serious Toboggan Accident Dampens Spirit at 18th Annual Nationals

The general practice of the Toboggan Times is to write about funny and amusing toboggan related events. When a serious accident does occur, no one seems to have the correct facts or the true story. After the collision at the 2008 Nationals many stories were getting about that did not ring true. Through interviews I have pieced together a more complete picture of what happened that afternoon. That story is presented here. I think it is important that people do not get the wrong story and perhaps lay blame where it does not belong.
If you have first hand information that can add to or clear up this story, please contact me so that we can add footnotes to make sure we all know the truth about what happened.  T. Sadowski

On the afternoon of Saturday, February 9, 2008, on the first day of the annual National Toboggan Championships in Camden, Maine, the 4-Person division was about an hour into their first set of qualifying runs when a collision occurred between a toboggan stopped in the chute and another toboggan coming down the chute.

Team # 268 Haraka Haraka! registered in Rockport, Maine was the first sled involved in the accident down the chute. Their toboggan had trouble staying straight in the chute and after riding up on the sideboards came to a stop near the timing van just before the finish line as photos published by the Camden Village Soup clearly show. This sled was occupied (as reported in the Bangor Daily News) by Brian VanDeBogert in front, followed by Emily Stein, Leilani K. Johnson and finally Keagan Russo.

The second sled was registered to Team # 321, listed as We Lead’s ‘T’ Committee, of Unity, Maine. This was an all female team that was also registered as being from Unity College. (There is a special award for fastest college team.) Team members were Hannah Brzycki, Lisa Attendor, Hannia Candelario and Katherine DeFelice.  This team crashed into Team #268 as the team members were just beginning the process of getting off their sled and out of the chute. Only Keagan Russo managed to get out of the way just as the impact occurred.

A sequence of photos published by Village Soup shows that only Russo was out of the way when the Unity Team slammed into those who remained. The first toboggan as well as Van DeBogert were thrown out of the chute while the rest of the two teams along with the Unity toboggan traveled 10 to 20 feet further down the track from the impact.

Witnesses said that the sound of the crash was horrible and unforgettable. The Unity toboggan hit with such a force that the protective front curl was completely broken off. Six people on the toboggans were injured.

Since the First-Aid station was located at the bottom of the chute and staffed by experienced members of the National Ski Patrol, aid was immediately available. One ambulance was already standing by as is customary during the Nationals and three others were called in to transport the injured. A decision was made to call in a Life-Flight helicopter when the most seriously injured team member was assessed in the first ambulance. This helicopter came to a pre-designated and prepared landing area about two miles away from the Snow Bowl and toboggan chute. It took about an hour to move all of the injured out of the accident area and load them onto ambulances.

The race was suspended for the remainder of the day.

The Bangor daily news and National Public Radio both reported that the collision occurred because the second toboggan “was allowed” onto the chute before the way was clear. Looking into the matter the Toboggan Times has found that the second toboggan was never allowed or given the go-ahead to race down the chute. Indeed, to the horror of the loading crew, the toboggan escaped their control, slipped past safety measures designed to keep it in place and sped away. The official incident report, prepared by the director of the Camden Parks and Recreation Department came to the same conclusion.

David Dickey was the official at the top of the chute who wears the headphones and communicates with the timing van at the bottom of the chute. He waits for the word from the timing van and he watches the flagman at the end of the chute for the all clear before giving the word to release any toboggan. On the afternoon of the incident he gave his account of what happened.

Dickey stated that he was watching the first toboggan having trouble in the chute a few seconds after it was released. The release was normal and the platform had come back up as normal. The aluminum gate that prevents sleds from accidentally falling onto the chute was lowered as it always is after a release. Stewart Young, who works the lever to release the platform that tips and releases the toboggans onto the chute was in the process of inserting a wooden stop known as the safety wedge, that keeps the platform level and locked to prevent any accidental release. The crew may have been put off their timing because of the erratic behavior of the first toboggan and the process of securing the platform may have begun a few seconds later than usual.

The tipping platform is designed so that when a three foot lever is pulled, it floats freely on a fulcrum –an axel that is more-or-less at the bottom and middle of the platform. Since most toboggans are a bit front heavy, the platform tilts down to the chute as soon as the lever is pulled thus starting the toboggan on its downhill slide. The platform, by its own weight, automatically comes back to the level position as soon as the weight of the toboggan is removed. At this time, it must manually be locked back in the horizontal position. There is no automatic mechanism for doing this. The chute master positions the lever to lock the platform and a safety wedge is inserted to prevent an accidental release.

Before Chute Master Young got the stop in place properly, the second toboggan prematurely glided onto the release platform. Since it was front-heavy, when it passed the tipping point, the platform, not yet locked, lowered the toboggan onto the chute. Since the team was lying relatively flat, the toboggan and team slipped underneath the aluminum gate and down the chute.

It is not know if the toboggan was pushed onto the platform by the chute crew or if the team members might have propelled themselves forward by pulling on the side rails. Dickey stated that the toboggan was slick because of the relative ease it moved onto the platform.

“It was a million to one shot” said Dickey. In all of the years he has been assisting at the Nationals he can remember only one other incident that a toboggan was launched prematurely “out of the thousands of toboggans we sent down the chute”, he said. Dickey further explained that it was a chance concomitance of events that precipitated the accident. “This wouldn’t have happened if things didn’t happen with split second precision.” He said. If the first toboggan hadn’t bogged down at the bottom of the chute it never would have been hit, if the second toboggan hadn’t glided onto the platform prematurely it would not have been launched, if the second sled wasn’t front heavy and if the chute master hadn’t had trouble getting the stop in place there would have never have been an incident worth noting.

Keagan Russo, 27, of Hope, Maine was riding on the back of the fist toboggan in his first time competing at the Nationals. He stated that his team Haraka! Haraka! had a rough time going down the chute.

“We bounced quit a bit from side to side” said Russo. A late addition to the team, he doesn’t remember the length of the toboggan but he knows that it was one of the Camden Snow Bowl toboggans that are available to any team that wishes to use one. These toboggans are generally 10 footers and are notoriously slow.

Russo recalls gliding past the timing clock on the top of the announcer’s van and noticing that the time was over 10 seconds, going on 11. The toboggan nearly stopped as it rode up onto the left side of the guide boards at the bottom of the chute that run out onto Hosmer Pond. This is when Russo heard the crowd shouting. He somehow freed his legs from his other teammates and instinctively jumped up and out of the way just as the second toboggan crashed into his team.

Denying any rumors that there was horseplay on the toboggan on the way down the chute which may have caused it to run up the sideboards, Russo insists that the team was interested only in a fast and smooth run. “We were not happy to be up on our side” he said.

Russo stated that the female team member sitting in front of him suffered a broken shoulder blade but it was his team member in the front of the sled that suffered the greatest injury and had to eventually be airlifted to the medical facility in Bangor. That victim, a male, was somehow thrown or fell forward during the impact resulting in head wounds and a broken jaw. Russo could not explain how this happened.

Both the Camden Herald and local TV station Channel 13 talked to Russo after the accident but he notes with some disappointment that no one from the Snow Bowl has checked on his well being other then to ask him to make a written statement about the accident. Russo is fine, by the way, he asserts.

Over Saturday night, race officials put new procedures in place to make sure this type of incident does not happen again. The procedures were obvious at the top of the chute where the loading of racing teams onto their toboggans takes place. Most visible was the presence of a loading crew member who physically stood between the loading area and the launch platform until a clear signal was given by the chute master that the platform was locked and ready to accept another toboggan. No other problems occurred for the remainder of the race.

Jeff Kuller, Director of Camden Parks and Recreation, conducted an investigation of the incident. This official report, circulated to the press and released to the public, was formally presented to the Camden Board of Selectmen the night of February 26, 2008 at their regular meeting. Keller expressed relief that injuries were not more serious and that the readiness to meet this incident was in place at the Camden Snow Bowl and worked well at the time of the accident. The board of selectmen thanked Kuller for his thorough investigation.

As well as detailing what went wrong, the report makes five recommendations to be implemented before next year’s event. The report, in its entirety can be read at this link.

Posted February 27, 2008