By David Hench
The Portland Press Herald
LEBANON, Maine — The owners of Go Deep Mud say they plan to make safety improvements to the Lebanon competition pit after an out-of-control truck ran over a rescue volunteer, who escaped without serious injury.
Kurt Zeller, owner of the facility, said that by the next competition, which is Aug. 30, he and his wife, Brenda, will make the pit ''soupier’’ and harder to climb the sides, and will add large cement ribs that would redirect any wayward vehicles back into the pit.
The 8-foot lengths of cement, 2 feet in diameter, are called ''hernia blocks,’' he said.
''The truck would hit one of these and deflect back into the pit,’' he said. ''It would not be a good day for the truck.
''Obviously, our concern is for the people. The trucks will take the damage, but the drivers are strapped in seven ways ‘til Sunday.’'
The only drawback to making the track wetter is that if the trucks with smaller tires have no chance of making it all the way to the finish line, it can be demoralizing, he said.
The Go Deep Mud facility consists of two lengthy pits filled with mud. One is 2 feet deep by 20 feet wide, and the other is 4 feet deep by 23 feet wide — for trucks such as Zeller’s, which is outfitted with 52-inch tractor tires.
The trucks run one at a time and try to make it from one end of the pit to the other, though most get bogged down short of the finish. A 200-foot cable called a tail winches the trucks back to the starting line.
Competitors are drawn mostly from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
On Sunday, the track’s third event this summer, about 1,000 spectators were on hand when one of the smaller ''monster’’ trucks malfunctioned, according to Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole. The truck’s throttle apparently became stuck, and the driver couldn’t control it as the truck zigzagged and then climbed out of the mud and roared toward the guardrail.
Onlookers fled, but one of the volunteer emergency medical technicians was standing closer to the pit and could not escape in time. The truck hit the man with its bumper. He was knocked onto the ground, and the truck then rolled over him, becoming stuck with him lying in mud beneath it, Cole said.
Because the modified trucks have such high clearance and none of the tires crushed him, the man received just minor injuries and was able to climb out from under the truck and walk to an ambulance.
He was treated and released from Goodall Hospital in Sanford.
Cole would not release the name of the EMT, who is a three-year veteran of the department, or the driver.
Officers were not called to the event, and were not required because it was a controlled off-road event, police said.
The EMT could remember only that the truck was coming toward him and that he jumped out of the way, Cole said.
Zeller said he asked the EMT whether his life flashed before his eyes.
''He said, ‘I didn’t have time for that. I was too busy diving,’'' Zeller said.
Zeller said the track already employed extensive safeguards. A line of posts and orange tape delineate the edge of the mud track, and the contest is immediately over whenever a truck hits the tape. Ten feet back from that is an old-style guardrail, where utility poles sunk into the ground are connected by cable, he said.
The snow fence keeping back the crowd is separated from the guardrail by another 10 feet, he said.
There have been no other similar incidents at the three previous competitions, during which trucks have made 500 runs, Cole said.
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