Beware: Slippery fun on sleds comes with risks

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BANGOR – Sled at your own risk.

Snow deep enough for some wintertime fun has coated the ground, and children are venturing to two of Bangor’s popular sledding spots. But they should be careful.

Although rescue workers said they respond to only a handful of incidents each year at the Essex Street and Union Street hills, it still can be dangerous to sled there, and according to state law, the city is not liable for those injuries, municipal officials said.

“I don’t think it’s ever been anything serious,” Bangor Assistant Fire Chief Darrell Cyr said Thursday. “Mostly bumps and bruises with a broken bone or two in the last couple of years.”

But stories about more serious injuries on the hills have been heard over the years.

Both hills are on city property and have been used by sledding enthusiasts for years, but the city is not required to put up signage, fence the property boundaries, or maintain or monitor the sites.

Union Street is a smaller hill and draws more families and children, while the steeper Essex Street hill is more attractive to older sledders.

Most ambulance calls are made to the larger hill, Cyr said. Known as the Essex Street hill, the slope actually is on Watchmaker Street near the Bangor Police Department’s Police Athletic League building.

Holden resident Dawn Caron recalled witnessing rather serious injuries during the two times she has been to the Essex Street hill for any length of time.

“The incident that I most recently observed was just this past Sunday,” Caron said Thursday.

She said a 7-year-old boy ran into a tree on his first trip down the hill and was unconscious for several minutes.

Caron, a registered nurse, heard the boy’s mother scream for help and ran down the hill to see what she could do. She stabilized the boy’s head and calmed the mother while waiting for the paramedics to arrive.

She tried to check on the boy at the hospital the next day, but he was not a patient in the pediatric unit and had been treated and then released as far as Caron knew.

This wasn’t the only injury she could recall. While sledding at the hill about two years ago, she saw an adolescent suffer what she said was a “pretty significant leg fracture where the bone actually came through the skin.”

The accident occurred after an ice storm when Caron said the trail was quite slick.

Although her daughters, ages 9 and 11, are proficient downhill skiers, Caron said sledding is a different story.

Unlike skiing, they don’t have the ability to stop when they want to. When sledding, they prefer the safer hills.

“I don’t anticipate that I’ll be taking them back there [Essex Street hill] anytime soon,” Caron said. “At any time someone could be really seriously hurt.”

The older sledders, however, seem to prefer the challenge of the steep slope and the fact that there are fewer small children.

“It’s better than Union Street,” Lindsay Hart, 15, of Glenburn said Tuesday. She went to the hill with a group of friends who were enjoying the nice weather and fresh snow.

“The best part of sledding is wiping out,” Christa Getchell, 15, of Glenburn said. Although it didn’t seem to deter them, the teens said they had heard stories of people being hurt while sledding at the hill.

Parents don’t seem as apprehensive in letting their children sled at the smaller Union Street hill.

“I’m not worried about anything serious because I think she’s pretty well-padded,” Debbie Germond, 47, of Bangor said. She brought her daughter, Kelsey Germond, 9, to the Union Street hill after school.

“I brought her here [Monday] and she loved it,” Debbie Germond said. The family moved to Bangor from Pennsylvania in August, and Kelsey had never really been sledding before, her mother said.

“I think it’s like you’re on a mountain and you’re falling down,” Kelsey said. She was sledding on the steeper portion, used mostly by the “big kids.”

“It’s pretty fast on that side, plus it’s harder to walk up,” Peggy McKee, 42, of Bangor said as she watched her daughter slide down the smaller slope at Union Street.

Overall, parents said they felt their children were safer at Union Street than they would be at Essex Street.

“They tumble off their sleds and sometimes into each other, but I think it’s pretty safe,” McKee said.

The worst part isn’t always going down. The trek back up the hill also can be scary.

“Remember, just come up on the side, not in the middle,” Elizabeth Ireland, 24, of Old Town said. She brought her friends, Cody Targon, 12, and Zach Targon, 14, of Bangor to Union Street hill Tuesday after school to sled.

“The second they’re out of school they want to come here,” Ireland said. The brothers, who wax their Snowboogie Skeleton Sleds to get more speed going down the hill, said they like the location because it’s close to home and a big enough hill to get up some speed.

“It’s just a nice place to sled,” Cody Targon said.