The dog team accident A dog team was hit by a car saturdaySaturday appr. at 12:30 pm bib no 116 Øyvind Nordahl Naess and his dogs were hit by a car. This happened just after leaving checkpoint Femundsvika. Naess had 8 dogs in his team when he started on the leg. The accident happened while the team was crossing a road.
As the race marshall for F400 and on behalf of the arrangement organisation I am very sorry for the accident. It is very sad that incidents like this happens. Both the arrangement organisation, participants and audience feel sorry and give their thought to the musher and others involved.
We critizize ourselves for not checking the warning signs during the the day, especially since the weather was quite extreme during the morning hours saturday.
The race leaders was told about the accident ca, 13 pm and travelled immidiately to the accident spot. The crossing were secured and a veterinarian checked the dogs. The facts connected to the accident was registrated. It was found that the musher was physically unharmed, but that several dogs had been hit by the car. The veterinarians concludes that two dogs had been hurted, but that their lives were not in danger.
It was found that the warning signs on the traffic road had been buried by snow thrown up by the snow plowing machine sunday morning. It was also found that the race trail were correctly marked by warning signs about dangerous crossing ahead. Together with the race marshall were the technical delegate(TD) from The Norwegian Mushers Organization, veterinarians and two of the checkpoint staff. The TD, Anne Grete Saetrang, confirms that the warning sign was correctly placed at 5:30 am, before the snow plowing after the snow fall took place. The police is also by routine notified.
Changes madeImmidiately after the accident several things were done to control that all other crossings were properly marked and secured. All road crossings will be provided with additional warning signs.
The sign system for the trail is done according to a sign plan approved by the national road authorities. The sign system were presented to the mushers before start,to make them aware that there are dangerous crossing points and how these are marked. It was made especially clear and demonstrated the appearance of the marking of dangerous spots along the trail and how these signs are functioning.
Further actionsWe will be in contact with the musher and will also adress the issue on the evaluation meeting for the mushers after the race has finnished. The purpose is to find out how the signing procedures can be improved in later races.
Lack of information on the InternettThe race leaderboard were under and after the accident on the trail, and had, in addition, technical problems with the race site. Because of that, the information about the accident were published on the Internett in cooperation with the local newspaper Arbeidets rett. The musher involved in the accident, who is employed as a press photographer in VG (largest norwegian tabloid), chose to publish his version via VG, who put the story on top on their web site.
This caused enormous traffic to the Femund site, which is not calibrated to such a large traffic. Both the web editors and our audience on the site experienced large problems all saturday when accessing the site.
Tomas Lillehagen
Race marshall F400Read interview with the car driver here (Arbeidets Rett) (norw. text)
http://www.retten.no/femundlopet/article3323665.eceRead interview with board director Harry Skancke here (Arbeidets Rett) (norw. text)
http://www.retten.no/femundlopet/article3323210.eceRead article about the accident in VG– With the mushers version and photos (norw. text)
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=510456
Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:11 am
Thanks for taking the time to keep us informed.
This is awful, but I guess it could've been so much worse. Glad it appears everyone (including the dogs) will be okay after a little recuperation.