Should irresponsible hikers be forced to pay for their rescue? This sheriff says yes

The number of rescues in wild areas around Mont Saint -Hélens continues to rise – and the actions of some of them before calling for help have aroused criticism and reckless.

A man, 21, in Kayaked on a waterfall, suffering from a spine injury. A 54 -year -old woman slipped MT. St. Helens – sliding on a snowy slope – and suffered a head injury when she hit a rock.

Each of these rescues in May, in a distant mountain county, required six -hour efforts. And a sheriff of the west coast is now thinking about sending the most blatant victims by invoice.

The idea would imply a new county order where a person could be cited “if they are considered reckless or negligent in his actions where research and rescue are invited to respond”, according to the Sheriff’s office in the county of Skamania, the distant and little populated county of Washington which houses Mount Saint-Hélers.

“I need to find a creative way to dissuade the current behavior that we are witnessing while trying to recover the financial burden placed on our county,” said Summer Scheyer in a statement. “This order is still in the planning phase, but I think it would be an additional means of deterrent for those who take exceptional risks.”

The number of research and rescue missions climbed in May in May in the county of Skamania compared to the same month of last year, said the sheriff’s office, with a number of missions taking four at nine o’clock to finish the rescue.

The county of Skamania is not alone. In southern Utah, the Garfield County Sheriff’s Bureau announced Tuesday that it required permits for some of the most remote and difficult slot canyons, noting “a significant increase in research and rescue operations”.

Nationally, the number of research and rescue operations of national parks is in the thousands – 3,308 in 2023 – which can involve anything from a child separated from their parents to a hiker lost in the hinterland.

The idea of ​​forcing irresponsible hikers to pay for their rescue has come before.

In New Hampshire, the state claims that people may be required to reimburse the costs to save them. One way to avoid such costs is to buy “safe hiking cards” – $ 25 per person and $ 35 per family – which supports state search and rescue efforts.

A recent rescue that caught the attention involved a pair of hikers who had to be rescued after hiking despite a forecast of rain, gries and snow in mid-January, left a marked path and feared to be hypothermic. The rescuers had to break a path – for three quarters of a mile on steep field – to get to hikers. “The pair has proven to be insufficiently prepared for the conditions planned,” said the department of fish and the game in a press release, and none had made a safety cards.

In 2013 in California, a massive research and rescue operation was launched in Orange County for two hikers, Nicolas Cendoya, 19, and Kyndall Jack, 18. They called for help after doing a Sunday of Easter at Trabuco Canyon and lost themselves. The mobile phone they used to make the call stopped working before the authorities can identify their location.

CENDOYA was found three days later, without help and disoriented half a million by their car, and Jack, the next day, in a brush with shoulder height. After the authorities found methamphetamine in the vehicle, which the pair had parked before hiking, some government representatives asked that the rescue bill of $ 160,000 was reimbursed.

CENDOYA pleaded guilty to a chief of accusation of drug possession, but was eligible for a drug diversity program which, if it is successfully completed, would mean that he could have the case rejects against him. The judicial archives indicated that the case was rejected in 2015.

However, a judge refused the request of Orange County Fire Authority that the agency recovers the $ 55,000 it spent for the search for the pair, saying that the fire agency was not the victim of a crime and could not request a return.

In response, California legislators have changed the law to allow government representatives to request a reimbursement for future rescues, with certain conditions.

Signed in 2015, the law authorizes a county or a city to request the reimbursement of emergency costs if it required “the use of extraordinary methods” and “was caused by an intentional act by knowing the violation” of any law “which led to a criminal conviction of this person for this law”.

But a county cannot perceive if the rescued person cannot afford to pay. The county cannot perceive more than $ 12,000 unless the rescued person has been condemned for a crime.

Although Orange County did not recover its costs, the hikers were faced with another legal action to keep them financially responsible.

Jack was continued by a volunteer rescuer who was injured during the search, falling by more than 100 feet, according to the lifeguard lawyers. The volunteer, who accused Jack of negligently rescuers in danger, received $ 100,000 as part of a legal settlement, paid from the insurance policy of the owner owned by Jack’s mother. The lifeguard lawyer said Cendoya had also settled with the rescuer for an undisclosed sum of money.

Some research and rescue organizations do not support the idea of ​​invoicing people who need rescue. “No one should never be forced to think that they must delay the notification of the appropriate authorities of a search or a rescue for fear of possible accusations,” said the Mountain Rescue. said.

In a post office in 2009, the association said that most of the services that save people in the United States “are provided by unpaid professional life-rescue teams who abandon their time to participate in research and rescue activities.”

“The typical research and rescue mission is completed in a few hours, and with the vast majority of the work carried out by unpaid professional volunteers, the costs are generally very low,” said Charley Shimanski, then president of the mountain rescue Assn., In a press release.

“It is true that the teams are sometimes on taxation and that new arrivals in the hinterland call 911 in questionable circumstances,” said Colorado Search and Rescue Assn. said. “However, we still do not think that the invoicing of services is the answer. We know from experience that when people think they will be charged, they often delay calls, even intentionally, rescuers. ”

Staff editor Alex Wigglesworth has contributed to this report.