Accidents, Injuries Take The Fun Out Of Sledding

Trees dot the steep, snow-covered hillside. Light poles and horse stables loom ominously below.

All are dangerous obstacles for sledders at Valley Mission Park, one of the Valley’s favorite sledding hills.

That’s a lesson 14-year-old Shawn Bos learned the hard way.

The Spokane Valley High School eighth-grader remained in serious condition at Valley Hospital and Medical Center on Friday, a week after he broke his neck in a sledding accident at the park.

Bos was injured Jan. 19 during a run down the hill on a homemade sled. He slammed head first into a hay bale at the base of a light pole.

“Those bales of hay get just as hard as the poles because they freeze up,” Bos said from his hospital bed Thursday night. “They don’t do any good.”

Doctors have told Bos they expect he will make a full recovery. He will be moved next week to St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute.

“That’s where they will teach me to stand up and walk on my own again,” he said.

Last week, Valley Hospital and Medical Center treated more than 20 people for sledding injuries. Only a couple were hospitalized.

Many of those people were injured at Valley Mission Park, hospital spokeswoman Terren Roloff said.

Most of the injuries happened last weekend as hundreds of eager sledders raced to take advantage of the sudden abundance of snow. Nearly 16 inches of snow has fallen since last Friday.

Hospital officials hope sledders learned something from last weekend’s accidents.

“It sometimes takes the first few for them to get the message,” said Valley Hospital spokeswoman Priscilla Gilkey.

Wyn Birkenthal, county parks and recreation manager, said the county is doing all it can to make the hill safe. Workers removed the horse arena fence at the bottom of the hill and piled hay bales in front of the trees, light posts and horse corals. Crews check the bales daily to make sure they stay where they were positioned.

“There’s not a whole lot else you can do,” Birkenthal said.

Birkenthal said that if the park was closed to sledders, many would end up on hilly streets, which would be even more dangerous.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: DONATIONS INVITED Valley Alberston’s stores are collecting donations to help pay Shawn Bos’s medical bills. Donations can be made at the stores or mailed to: Shawn Bos Fund, Albertson’s, 10 N. Pines Road, care of the customer service booth. The teenager’s mother works at the store on North Pines.