Volunteer Rescuer's Injuries Covered by Comp

Wednesday, January 25, 2017 | 0

A volunteer who sustained multiple fractures after getting caught in an avalanche during a rescue effort will have his medical bills paid by workers' compensation, Routt County, Colorado, officials told the Steamboat Today newspaper on Monday.

Jay Bowman, 54, is a member of the volunteer Routt County Search and Rescue team. On Jan. 12, a skier and snowboarder visiting from Minnesota called for help from Fish Creek Canyon, having gotten lost in the backcountry. Four members of the rescue team, including Bowman, headed out to save them.

As Bowman skied across the missing men's tracks, the snow started to move. An avalanche carried him down the mountain, where he collided with a tree. He broke several bones in his leg, lacerated his hand and fractured his upper arm, requiring 13 screws to stabilize it.

Routt County provides workers' compensation coverage for the search and rescue team, obtained from County Technical Services Inc. The Denver-based CTSI provides workers' comp insurance through a risk pool called the County Workers' Compensation Pool. It covers nearly 20,000 people with payroll in excess of $384 million per year, according to CTSI's website. 

Bowman will apply for medical but not indemnity benefits, as he is not employed. He volunteers on the boards of directors of four community organizations and for the search and rescue team. 

The Jan. 12 rescue effort frustrated county commissioners and members of the rescue team after they realized the same men had been rescued from the same spot four years before.

"I'm incensed that those guys had to be rescued twice," Routt County Commissioner Cari Hermacinski told Steamboat Today on Monday. "They had no additional outdoor equipment with them, food, water, stove. Do we have a civil complaint against them? I could live with the second call if they had some equipment. I'm damn mad."

Read Steamboat Today's story here.