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'All
the fun stuff has a hint of danger'
Mike Griffin has been laid up for weeks at his East Anchorage
home after he crashed his snowmachine on Valentine's Day in
a ditch on the Kenai Peninsula. The accident broke both legs,
one in 16 places. Metal screws and rods, visible in an X-ray
of his left leg, were used to put him back together. (ERIK HILL
/ Anchorage Daily News) |
By S.J. KOMARNITSKY
Daily News Reporter
Flying over the Kenai Peninsula landscape at 70 mph
on an airborne snowmobile, Mike Griffin had time for one thought
about the impending landing:
"This is going to hurt."
He never figured on how much.
When the flight of the Anchorage construction company owner was
stopped by the side of a frozen ditch, he broke both legs, one in
16 places; busted the heel of his right foot; and tore all the ligaments
in his right shoulder.
The shock of the impact nearly killed him. Four times he stopped
breathing before rescue crews arrived. Each time his friends shook
him until he gasped for breath again.
Griffin was lucky. He survived one of the most serious nonfatal
snowmobile accidents in the state this year.
"I saw pain at a level I never expected in life," the 46-year-old
said earlier this month. He was sitting in the wheelchair he has
been confined to since the Valentine's Day accident. For two months,
his life has alternated largely between the chair and his living
room couch and a few hobbling steps on crutches.
Today he can put only minimal weight on his left leg. He takes
daily doses of pain medication. A scar that runs from midcalf to
his knee marks where two doctors spent 5 1/2 hours resetting and
pinning together the lower leg bone that broke and was driven through
his knee into his upper leg. The doctors used an erector set's worth
of steel plates and screws to make Griffin whole again.
"I don't need a first aid kit anymore," he jokes. "I need a toolbox."
A tall, lanky man with curly brown hair, Griffin is a lover of
the Alaska beyond the cities. His East Anchorage home is full of
mounted fish, moose antlers and photographs attesting to an active
outdoor lifestyle. He has been riding snowmachines since he was
a teenager. He raced them when he was younger.
The accident, he believes, was a fluke.
"It was just one of those things," Griffin said. "It's like your
number is up."
He was riding with two friends near Anchor Point, he said. As they
came across an open muskeg, Griffin squeezed the throttle hard.
He didn't know someone had dug a ditch across the property.
Friend Charles Keim knew but thought Griffin was safely riding
behind. Keim didn't know otherwise until he saw Griffin hurtling
over the 20-foot-wide ditch.
Griffin saw it only seconds before impact. There was no time to
brake, he said, so he hit the throttle and pulled up on the handlebars.
At first, he had hopes of clearing the obstacle. It didn't take
long to recognize that wasn't going to happen.
"I knew I wasn't going to make it," he said.
He and the snowmobile slammed into the far side of the ditch about
five feet below the top, bounced out and then rolled several dozen
feet before stopping on the open tundra.
Looking back, he doesn't think he made any big mistakes. He admits
he was riding fast in unfamiliar terrain, but he thought it was
safe terrain - an open field.
And he was wearing protective gear, including a helmet and leather
clothing.
"It wasn't the snowmachine's fault or my recklessness," he said.
"It happened to be just one of those deals. I drive really fast
when I think conditions are right to do that. I don't go fast when
it's not safe."
He said he doesn't see a need for more safety education, training
or age limits on the machines. He said he believes such requirements
would be difficult to enforce and implement.
At what age would one start requiring classes? Griffin asked. Who
would give the classes?
He also questions whether riding snowmachines is really more dangerous
than other adventure sports.
"I bet more people get hurt skiing," he said. "I've been riding
for more than 30 years, and this is the first time I've gotten hurt.
That says something about the safety."
The main reason he thinks there are more accidents now is that
a lot more people are riding. Besides, he added, everything has
risk.
"All the fun stuff has a hint of danger," he said.
* Reporter S.J. Komarnitsky can be reached at skomarnitsky@adn.com.
©2000
Anchorage Daily News
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