On NYE, a man fell through the ice while riding a snowmobile on a lake in Michigan, before being rescued, and around the same time, a family member of mine slipped on the ice and was seriously hurt, unable to move until found. I couldn't help but put a PSA out urging anyone dealing with icy conditions to keep a Garmin inReach with them, or any satellite communicator, on their person, whether hiking or walking to their car.
Now, further highlighting the importance of this point is a motorcyclist whose Cardo saved his life after an accident in Arizona.
Dustin Hayes was riding when he crashed his motorcycle at around 9:00 p.m. on New River Road between Carefree Highway and the I-17. It's uncertain what exactly caused the accident, but Hayes' wife believes he was trying to avoid an animal, and he has been in a medically induced coma ever since, as he's on the long path of recovering from 20 broken bones, including his neck and spine, as well as a concussion and a brain bleed.
The fact that Hayes is even alive is almost certainly down to the alert that his Cardo sent his wife, Brooke Hayes, right after the crash. “I got a message from my phone saying ‘urgent’ and just so I opened it,” Brooke told Fox 10. “Dustin might have been in a car accident or an accident, so I was like, ‘I’ll just drive out there, it’s 30 minutes away, just to double check.’”
When Brooke arrived at the pin drop location, she didn't see anything, but stated on her GoFundMe page, “I had a gut feeling, so I walked the road with my flashlight. I saw his bike, ran over and found him. Cars passing by couldn't see him, and his bike flew over a fence." Dustin was on the side of the road, in a spot that passersby couldn't see him. By the time the police arrived, 10 minutes after Brooke, Dustin had been lying on the side of the road for 30+ minutes.
“I wouldn't have known where he was and the spot he was in,” Brooke told Fox 10. “I don’t think people would have found him until morning.” If this story alone doesn't highlight the importance of communication systems with crash detection and an SOS feature, nothing else will. Dustin is expected to come out of his medically induced coma, and Brook's GoFundMe has raised $9,830 of the $11,000 goal at the time of writing.
