Troopers: Driver in deadly snowmachine, dog sled crash had been drinking
Originally published Friday, November 21, 2008 at 4:32 p.m.
Updated Friday, November 21, 2008 at 5:19 p.m.
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A 20-year-old man had been drinking before he set off on a frozen trail and rammed a dog sled with his snowmobile, killing the musher and severely injuring a passenger in the sled, authorities said Friday.
State troopers said they also are investigating reports that snowmobile driver Patrick Tickett and his passenger declined requests by the injured woman, Tracy Schaeffer, for one of them remain at the scene.
The woman's husband, Chuck Schaeffer, said his wife told him she could have used assistance tying a tourniquet on the mangled leg of Roger Gollub, a 53-year-old Anchorage pediatrician who treated Alaska Native children. Gollub was making his first sled dog run, courtesy of Schaeffer, an occupational therapist who runs a mushing excursion business on the side. Chuck Schaeffer said his wife let the doctor drive to give him the full mushing experience.
Gollub ultimately died after the crash Wednesday night, a few miles from the coastal town of Kotzebue.
Both Tickett and his passenger, 20-year-old Clarissa Cleveland, headed back to Kotzebue to look for help. They went on foot because the snowmobile's belt broke, but they soon encountered another snowmobiler who took them back to town.
Chuck Schaeffer said Friday his 39-year-old wife remained hospitalized in Anchorage after undergoing surgery. She was in critical but stable condition and hooked up to a ventilator to help her breathe, he said.
"I guess we're finally realizing there was an amazing amount of injury," he said. "Basically, one side of her body caved in."
Troopers said it was too soon in their investigation to say if they will pursue criminal charges against Tickett or Cleveland, who both live in the village of Ambler. Complicating the case, the victims already had been taken to the local hospital by the time troopers were notified and made it to the scene, said Sgt. Karl Main.
Toxicology tests will help gauge how much alcohol was involved. Troopers also are reviewing the 911 call initially made to local police and they plan to interview Tracy Schaeffer when her condition allows.
"We're still trying to determine what really happened," Main said.
Tracy Schaeffer told her husband she had flashed her headlamp toward the snowmobile as it sped up from behind, but it slammed into the sled anyway. Main said investigators also are looking into this.
The impact scattered the 10 dogs, but they were later rounded up in good condition.
Chuck Schaeffer said he finally was able to speak to Gollub's wife, listed in state records as Diane Abrahams-Gollub. He said they both noted that the doctor died doing something he long wanted to try.
"He was pretty excited to do it," Schaeffer said. "I think that was a comfort to both us."
The trail travels over Kotzebue Sound when it freezes each winter, joining a network linking area villages. Snowmobilers, dog teams, even walkers use the trails and mishaps are not unheard of, said Schaeffer, a musher himself who had a close call with a drunken snowmobiler years ago.
To combat that kind of risk, troopers and regional officials occasionally produce public safety announcements. They plan to do so again in response to this week's collision, Main said.
"Unfortunately, for some people it takes these kinds of incidents to remember to be careful," he said. "But the warning is only as serious as the people receiving it. If they feel invincible, chances are the warning will fall on deaf ears. I hope in incidents like this that will not be case."
Community Discussion
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Patrick Tickett may well be up on manslaughter charges soon. Ramming people with a vehicle shows either bad intent, total incompetence or foolish recklessness. I for one think such actions ought to have serious consequences for the person who caused them.
If you drive a vehicle of any sort drunk and cause an accident which kills someone, you should go to jail for the rest of your life. Until we really crack down on drunk driving, there is very little incentive for folks not to do it. The punishment for minors consuming alcohol is not a deterrent either. Those kids should be forced to do serious community service for several hours each week for a year. Instead they pay a fine of a few hundred bucks and do a small amount of community service-so why not try to get away with it.
Wow, what do you have to got to do to get arested in this state. Mark my words this will go no contest. Everything in this state goes no contest even open shut cases. This is a felony leaving the scene of a acident at the least even without alcohol envolved. Pray for Roger Gollub, another needless death. DONT SNOW MACHINE AND DRIVE, if you kill somone go to jail.
I agree that not enough is done for drunk drivers. I was hit by a 20 year old drunk driver, luckily the damage was minimal, but how bad is it when the cops find him in a ditch passed out behind the wheel and he doesn't remember hitting anyone. The state is just lazy with their convictions, they got him to agree to the DUI by agreeing to drop the minor consumption, minor consumption while operating a vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident. He got a total of 3 days in jail. He's so lucky if he would have hit me a little more to the right one of us could have been more seriously injured or worse.
This is a terrible accident!! But it is that, an accident. If Mr. Tickett was drinking and it is proven by toxicology reports, then I say throw the book at him. If it is not proven...it is a terrible, tragic accident. I feel for the family of the good Dr. that was doing so much good in such an area that is without doctors, but if it is not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Tickett was drinking, then it is reckless endangerment at best. I do not condon drunken driving, of anything, but things like this do happen in the villages. Sometimes it is not easily preventable.
Now, now. What is all this fuss about this guy allegedly drinking and killing someone. Big friggin deal.
Happens all the time. Alaskans don't care.
Alaskans serving at the highest level set the standard for the rest of us to follow.
Rick Solie, presiding officer of the Borough Assembly was busted for driving drunk. And it wasn't the first time he was impaired behind the wheel.
Jerry McBeath, the head of the school board was caught driving drunk.
We have a state Senator, Lesil McGuire, who got impaired on an airplane- and the pilot has to stop the plane to deal with her disruptive behavior.
Even our state Troopers drink and drive. Recall that Trooper Wooten was allegedly driving a trooper car while impaired.
We get drunk all the time and kill people up here. We run down little kids, and laugh when a Fairbanks Police officer explains that a four year old is critically injured- (and then later dies).
We run down a 13 year old riding a bike in front of his home on Goldstream road, then speed away leaving a mortally wounded kid to die in his horrified brother's arms.
We even kill our tourists! What fun. The dumb tourist who stopped to enjoy the fall leaves along Chena Hot Springs Road got what he deserved when he got killed by a drunken hit and run driver.
So the message: Party Hearty. Get wasted. If you kill other people, the people of this state don't care. Certainly the people's representatives in the legislature won't do much more than ensure you get your wrist slapped.
Woo Hoo!
Anyone want to join me over at the Big I? I am going to see if I can score some coke from one of those guys who served (or wanted to serve) in the legislature.
If you drink! Don't drive! because thats how you will wake up tomorrow morning in good health! we are all sorry but thats the fact.
tonto use your real name and see if you post such nonsense.
Pat
Pat, one of the reasons some writers are reluctant to use parody in their satire is because of readers like you.
It is over your head.
yukonjon says "...terrible tragic accident" "...things like this do happen in the villages. Sometimes it is not easily prevetable".
Where do I start? Considerations of alcohol involvement aside, classic tradgedy implies circumstances beyond the understanding or knowledge of the principals. There is nothing "tragic" here in the classic sense, it is pure unadulterated stupidity, ignorance, juvenile irresponsibility, and arrogance. What is difficult about the simple rule of "don't overdrive your headlights"? What is hard to understand about "don't speed at night on a well travelled trail between communities". We all know that many snow machines don't have functional head lights. We also know that there are frequently pedestrians on the trails. This criminal incident was easily preventable by a little responsibility. It also implicates the serious dearth of law enforcement in rural Alaska.
Both kids on the snow machine had prior convictions for underage drinking....check the court records. The time to intervene was the first offense. Now they are both guilty of manslaughter and leaving the scene... Doesn't matter if they were drinking in this case...they rear- ended pedestrians because they were going too fast.
drunk driving could be greatly reduced by putting a breath a lizer on the ignition of every motor vehicle like they do in some states for convicted drunk drivers.
"Troopers said it was too soon in their investigation to say if they will pursue criminal charges against Tickett or Cleveland, who both live in the village of Ambler. Complicating the case, the victims already had been taken to the local hospital by the time troopers were notified and made it to the scene, said Sgt. Karl Main."
So if you run someone over and they have to go to the hospital all you have to do is run away and the state troopers who know you where drinking, left the scene of an accident (which someone eventually died from) and where you live will have a harder time making a case against you. Interesting.
akpatriot & yukonjohn-
Do you guys like to drink and drive? just wondering because your posts read like you're trying to "cover up" for the stupid, drunken, moron who was so out of it he couldn't even see a headlamp flash at him out of pitch blackness. If you can't see a dog-sled at night then you simply have no business riding a sled after dark, especially drunk.
Even IF he wasn't drunk at the least he should be charged with negligence, he ran full-speed into a dog-sled killing one person and sent another to the hospital with critical injuries (she is lucky to be alive still), this is not some "fender bender".
Only an ignorant moron would deny that drinking and driving of many types of vehicles is a big problem in Alaska, people seem to think they are "entitled" to drive around with open containers and bottles of whiskey, you see the empties all over the roads and read about the drunk drivers that get caught almost everyday, BOO! HOO! lock'em up!
It's stories like this that make me consider getting back into law-enforcement, so I can do my part to keep things like this from happening.
Increase the tax on alcohol by 500-1000% and increase the severity of punishment for alcohol related crimes two-fold at least, booze is obviously way to cheap and easy to get even if you're not 21.
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