Teen crashes bike in Annadel, rescue includes helicopter ride

A 17-year-old mountain biker crashed Tuesday afternoon while riding in Trione-Annadel State Park, needing a helicopter rescue due to his injuries, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

The teen lost his balance on a rugged, narrow trail, leading to the crash and a leg injury, said sheriff’s Sgt. Henri Boustany, who responded with the sheriff’s helicopter to the park in east Santa Rosa.

A 1:45 p.m. call for help brought Sonoma County Fire firefighters, an AMR ambulance crew and the helicopter. The firefighters and paramedics hiked in and found him on a rocky single-track trail connecting Canyon and Spring trails.

Crews determined the youth would have to be carried down the trail on a litter but the unstable effort risked further injury to the teen as well as responders, so the helicopter picked him up and he was carried to a waiting ambulance.

“It was safer for the rescue crews and the victim to lift him up and out,” Boustany said.

Such calls to area parks, primarily Annadel and Hood Mountain, are fairly common, especially in the warmer months when more mountain bikers and hikers take to the trails. But last week the helicopter, firefighters and paramedics were called to Ragle Ranch Regional Park in Sebastopol when an elderly man collapsed from a heart attack while walking a path toward the back end of the county park.

The crews hiked in about a quarter mile and started CPR. The helicopter landed in a field near the man to retrieve him so firefighters wouldn’t have to stop the life-saving effort while carrying him to an ambulance, Boustany said. The man was flown to a hospital and didn’t survive.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com.