A morning ATV outing turned into a harrowing ordeal this week when a 49-year-old man from Spring Valley was stranded for hours after crashing into a remote wash in northern Arizona.
According to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a report around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday that a local resident had not returned from a quick quad ride he began at about 6 a.m. The man had told a friend the trip would take less than an hour. When he failed to come back and couldn’t be reached, concern quickly grew.
Search and rescue crews from Yavapai County’s Forest Patrol and Yavapai Search and Rescue mobilized to comb the rugged landscape near Spring Valley. After nearly four hours of searching, teams located the man shortly before 5:30 p.m. at the bottom of a wash not far from his home.
Though alert and responsive, he was unable to move due to injuries sustained in the crash. Members of the Mayer Fire Department carefully lifted him from the wash and transferred him to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Authorities have not released additional details about the man’s condition but credited the coordinated response between law enforcement and rescue crews for the successful recovery.
