Construction Worker Rescued After Fall From Sun Road

Glacier National Park
Construction Worker Rescued After Fall From Sun Road

Rangers rescued a construction worker yesterday after he took a 35-foot fall. The worker, 33-year-old Wainuma Ned of Coeur d’Alene, was operating a small excavator when it became unbalanced and fell from Going-to-the-Sun Road near the East Tunnel. Witnesses said that Ned jumped clear of the excavator as it went over the edge of the road, fell about 35 feet, then slid and tumbled down the hill, ending up about 100 feet below Sun Road on a loose rock debris field. The excavator remained in front of him and tumbled to the bottom of the debris field about 200 feet further down the embankment. Witnesses also reported that Ned was able to stand and briefly walk after the fall. Coworkers immediately scrambled down the rocks to his location and kept him still and warm until help could arrive. Rangers and EMS personnel descended to Dan’s location, put him in a litter, raised him to the road, then put him in an ambulance that took him to Logan Pass. He was picked up there by a medevac helicopter and flown to Kalispell Regional Medical Center. He was conscious throughout the evacuation. Ned is an employee of Guinett Masonry, Inc. of Vancouver, Washington, one of the subcontractors working for HK Contractors Inc. on the Sun Road rehabilitation project. He was moving rocks when the accident happened.