*** Jeep Driver's body recovered from Sangre de Cristo Mountains *** To: Search & Rescue Info Date sent: Wed, 29 Nov 95 14:08:19 -0800 From: Lee, Ron Subject: Jeep Driver's body recovered from Sangre de Cristo Mountains To: SAR Info BBS BODY OF JEEP DRIVER RECOVERED: Salida, Colorado - November 28, 1995 The body of a Security, Colorado woman who died Sunday in a four-wheeling accident was recovered Tuesday. Carol Mershon, 54, described as an avid backcounty four-wheeler, died when the Jeep she was driving rolled 300 feet down an embankment in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, about 100 miles southwest of Colorado Springs. Low temperatures and snow prevented rescue workers from retrieving Mershon's body until about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, when search and rescue members from three counties were able to reach her and carry her out. The Carol Mershon and her husband, Robert Merson were with three other four-wheelers from the Colorado Four-Wheelers club on a dirt trail over Hayden Creek Pass near Coaldale in Fremont County when the accident ocurred. The group was ready to go on its first "run" on the trail about noon, when Carol Mershon, who was in the lead, stopped at a patch of ice about 10 feet wide on what appeared to be a flat road. Robert Mershon got out of the vehicle to ensure that the ice wasn't too slick and gave his wife the OK. As Mrs. Mershon started the Jeep cross the patch of ice, it started sliding; the road sloped slightly. "She must have panicked," Robert Mershon, 60, said Monday. "The first thing you think of is to slam on the brakes, and that's what she did. I was trying to hold the Jeep from going over the edge." But Mr. Mershon slipped and fell, and the Jeep tumbled 300 feet down the steep, rocky embankment. "I thought she'd roll a little bit and stop, but no trees stopped her, and she kept going." Carol Mershon was thrown several feetfrom the Jeep, and she died at the scene. Although she was wearing a seat belt, she had loosened it to be more comfortable. Robert Mershon was the first to reach his wife. He broke his right foot as he hiked down to his wife's side. He was flown to Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, where he was treated Sunday and released. Low temperatures and snow at the site, located at an elevation of about 10,500 ft., had prevented rescuers from removing Mrs. Mershon's body until Tuesday. Search and Rescue teams from Fremont and Arapahoe Counties assisted El Paso County Search and Rescue members in the recovery during a heavy snow storm. Robert Mershon said he and his wife were aware of the risks involved in four-wheeling in the backcountry, but they took the extra safety precautions of wearingshoulder straps, installing a roll cage in the Jeep to prevent it from caving in, and going with a group. And, the trail they were on Sunday was fairly flat and not too rugged, Robert Mershon said. "We had been in similar situations before," he said. "We've gone down hills backwards and sideways. This was something that was no problem at all -- or so it seemed." ----------------------------------------