Hiker Survives Four Days Trapped in a Drainage Tunnel with a Broken Leg
Edward Pierz 09.06.12
Daniel Samuelsen was hiking in Utah over the weekend when he fell into a drainage ditch. The fall broke his leg, which left him alone and stranded in the ditch for four days before he was finally rescued.
According to Samuelsen, his ill-fated hike began at Parley Canyon near Salt Lake City. Initially he was hiking with a friend, but they parted ways before the accident, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. After the two hikers separated, Samuelsen tried to cross under a highway through a drainage tunnel, where he fell nearly fifty feet. “I heard the crack,” says Samuelsen. “And I put my hand down there to grab it to feel what was wrong and I could literally feel the bone protruding out of my leg.”
Samuelsen tried to use his cell phone to call for help, but it was dead. After that he tried yelling and he even banged on the tunnel with a rock for several hours until he realized no one could hear him. He was trapped in the bottom of the tunnel for four days without food or water until he tried to escape, the New York Daily News reports. Eventually he crafted a splint from a piece of wood and began to crawl to the highway overhead. The 200 yard crawl took over two hours but he eventually reached the side of the highway.
“I was near tears when someone finally stopped. I clasped my hands together and was like ‘thank you, thank you,'” Samuelsen said in an interview with ABC News. “I was so happy to see somebody who cared enough about me to stop and realize I needed help.”
The hiker was found by a passing motorist and he was rushed to the hospital. After being treated for severe dehydration and a compound fracture, Samuelsen is expected to make a full recovery.
