Two injured in OHV accident near Huckleberry Pass

A side-by-side accident during the Oct. 3 DAV Fun Run sent one woman to the hospital after the driver apparently overcorrected on a sharp corner just below Huckleberry pass, sending the OHV off an embankment and into the trees below.

The women, who weren't identified but were said to be from Great Falls, were discovered by two bowhunters who were driving past. Trevor Bowman and Preston Millan, from the Missoula area, were looking for a game trail that would take them away from the noise of the OHV's when they heard the women screaming for help.

Bowman and Millan dropped down steep hillside to the crash where they found both women conscious. One of the women was outside the vehicle, while the other was pinned beneath the overturned vehicle.

As Bowman worked to free the pinned woman, Millan returned to their truck and drove down the road hoping to find other OHV riders to help. Instead he first found Crystal and Brian Kant near Arrastra Creek. They had ended their own day of bow hunting and decided to drive west over the pass.

"He told us an ATV had gone off. His friend was at the scene already. He said his friend needed help," Brian said.

Bowman fired a couple rounds with his pistol to alert the Kants as they drove by. At that point Bowman had tired himself out trying to lift the side-by side off the pinned woman.

Brian said it appeared the machine had knocked over one tree on its way down, which in turn knocked another tree over that landed on top of the vehicle.

"We had to get the first tree off so we could lever the machine up off of her," Brian said. "My wife was able to drag her out."

She didn't appear to have any spinal injuries, so Bowman and Brian leapfrogged around one another as they helped her up the steep slope to the road. The Kants drove the women back down to meet first responders by Arrastra Creek.

Lincoln EMTs evaluated both women, who apparently had non-life threating injuries. The woman who had been pinned under the side-by-side had a suspected broken arm and was taken to Missoula by the Lincoln Ambulance for further evaluation. The other woman opted not to go to the hospital.

A call to the Montana Highway Patrol trooper who investigated the crash wasn't returned before press time, so additional details about the circumstances of accident and the condition of the women weren't available.

Bowman, Millan and the Kants were all surprised the women appeared to be only slightly injured and were able to walk away from the wreck, given the distance the small vehicle had traveled before landing upside down at the bottom of a dark and steep ravine.

Based on what he saw, Bowman suspected they came into the corner too fast, overcorrected and went off the embankment at an angle before hitting a tree or rock that sent them airborne. He said the side-by-side snapped a 12-15 inch round tree "clean off" before hitting another tree, which stopped their momentum and sent them tumbling.

"If it hadn't stopped them, they'd have never found them," he said. "They'd have kept going." Bowman said he and Millan were just in the right place at the right time, but Crystal Kant had a different expression for it.

"It was a total angel moment."