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Subscribe to RSSA homeless man who survived being trapped four days in a Utah drainage tunnel with a badly broken leg says he’s relieved he made it out alive but regrets “a serious lack of judgment” that got him into his predicament.
“I’ll never do that again,” Daniel Samuelsen, 33, said Sunday from his hospital bed in Salt Lake City, where he was being treated for a compound fracture in his lower right leg and severe dehydration. Doctors at St. Mark’s Hospital have told Samuelsen his fracture is so severe, he could lose his right leg.
Samuelsen told local media he fell into the tunnel, near the mouth of Parleys Canyon in the foothill east of Salt Lake City, after taking a detour on a hike on Wednesday. He and a friend hiked to a segment of pipe that slopes uphill from the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
The pipe led into a series of underground drain tunnels that open out on the other side of the highway.
Samuelsen thought it would be a good idea to explore the “shortcut.” His friend wasn’t convinced and left.
Samuelsen says he’d crossed the drainage pipe before using a rope, but this time there was no rope.
"That was a serious lack of judgment,” Samuelsen said of his decision to continue.
Samuelsen crawled inside the pipe and slipped. Suddenly he was on his back, sliding down, “faster, faster, faster, faster, then boom!" he told the Salt Lake Tribune.
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He wound up about 50 feet below the opening, his right leg smashed and a broken bone protruding from the skin.
Samuelsen, who lives in a homeless shelter and works as an independent taxi driver, said he screamed for help for hours. But though he could hear dozens of bicyclists and walkers coming and going just a few feet overhead on the trail, his pleas were drowned out by the nearby freeway traffic, he told the Tribune.
By Friday, as dehydration, hunger and injury further weakened him, “I was pretty convinced I was going to die,” he said.
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The next day, with hope of rescue fading, Samuelsen found a piece of wood and made a split for his severely fractured leg. He eventually managed to slide down the lower tunnels.
“"I was screaming in fear pretty much the whole way down," he said, according to the Tribune.
At the bottom, he scooted another 100 yards or so to the opening near Tanner Park. He said he spent several hours on the side of the road before finally being able to flag down a motorist for help.
"I was near tears when someone finally stopped. I clasped my hands together and was like 'thank you, thank you,'" Samuelsen said, according to Good Morning America. "I was so happy to see somebody who cared enough about me to stop and realize I needed help."
He says he regrets his bad judgment and urges other would-be explorers not to follow his tracks.
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Leave a Comment:
Did the Utah man have a broken leg or did the tunnel have a broken leg?
The article states that the tunnel had a broken leg. That must be true because, otherwise, it would have gone for help and the poor guy would not have been stuck there for four days.
Didn't he learn from "127 hours" movie?
Painful lesson, but probably well learned.
Just goes to show it never ends well when you start hitting the pipe.
What an awful friend! How did he not check on his hiking buddy after 4 days of not hearing from him?!
Jeez, no wonder were a dying breed...
I thought the same thing while reading that.
Miss Nessa,My thoughts exactly.
Sad the loneliness of being homeless ...and no one cares
To..cottongin""""
no....
The motorist who stopped cared.This is still sad for him to be living in a homeless shelter but I give him credit for working and trying to better his life.
Participate in dangerous activity, get injured during said activity, sue the state of Utah, profit!!!$$$
He is working homeless according to other news sources.
We all make poor choices every now and then, what this man did was stupid and he admits that but again I say we all do things that are not the wisest but if it doesn't hurt us we figure its no big deal.
From the story the man states that he made the same journey through the pipe with a rope but figured he would be OK without the rope this time. (at least that what I got from the article) That and his friend not sticking around added up to huge trouble which almost cost him his life. I hope he doesn't lose his leg either.
How many people go out in a boat without a pfd or ride in auto without a seat beat? Were all taking a risk everyday just walking across the street. I'm glad the guy got out of the pipe and hopefully he remembers the accident for life and makes other people learn from his mistake for what its worth.
I wish the guy luck and hope he can get his life back together soon, many people have lost everything with the economy being as it is, lastly I hope no one decides to go to where this all happened and checks out the pipe and ends up hurting or killing themselves, wouldn't be the first time someone follows in the footsteps of a prior fool.
See now how hiking outdoors is a dangerous gateway activity to sliding down drainage pipes. Ban hiking!
I would've call it a slippery slope...
Send his medical bills to the taxpayers of Utah.
The man works but lives in a homeless shelter.He was out hiking not robbing people.I'd pay his bill if I could afford it.
Before you say that, you better make sure he'd do the same for you!
my thoughts and prayers go out to the homeless dude with the broken leg in the tunnel in utah. godspeed homeless broken leg dude in the tunnel in utah.
And now taxpayers can pay for his medical expenses.
I see that the report keeps saying he was in a tunnel...from what I can tell it's a culvert...not a tunnel..am I missing something??
I thought people without health insurance aren't admitted into hospitals!
Who's paying that bill?
Wow. Are there really people out there who think you can't go ever enter a hospital without health insurance?
I'm not sure which portion offended you...that poor people COULD in fact receive medical care or that tax payers' dollars provide for this care? Nancy, I'm guessing that you aren't one of the uninsured. And apparently, after living under the false notion that uninsured people don't count somehow, you were completely okay with it at least in principle, until this article enlightened you???
Granted, things aren't great with the medical/insurance provider situation in America but it's not heartless and draconian! If I thought I lived in a country like that, I'd never stop protesting the sheer lack of compassion and humanity. Would you even want to live in a country like that, where we turn our backs on those who can't afford healthcare? And so what, even if it's their choice to be poor, do you deny an entire population basic health needs and treatment? That's pure kaka.
"The next day, with hope of rescue fading, Samuelsen found a piece of wood and made a split for his severely fractured leg. He eventually managed to slide down the lower tunnels."
What's a split? I think the author meant to say splint, right? Or is this drug lingo I'm not hep to?
You people HAVE TO STOP LABELING people as "homeless." To some, this is like saying this person has no value or worth. You know how some fools treat the "homeless." The man has a home somewhere, most of these so called homeless do, it's just that they want to do what they want to do usually because of some kind of mental illness or impulsive, destructive behavior. Stop with the labels, "gay man," "homeless man." Newsflash, they are men!
Oh Carol, where did you come from?! Exactly right Carol. I was writing a post and stopped to look up 'Homeless" when I returned my Half comment was gone but you were there above me with your comment, thank-you,,,ok! Homeless is just 'that'--pure and simple,,,"one without 'Night-time residence". There is no mention of uselessness, lazy, wasted skin and or oxygen. If you can't comment positively someone may come one day to take the air that you are wasting! This man got a bad statement when the word homeless is thrown into the mix while using hls misfortune of the day to fill your quota of 'News'! and do you care? I think not,,,,just a useless man got a broken leg while hiking! Your attitude is as much use as a bowl of frozen water set on top of an iceberg,,,,,,He was as destitute without a home as "YOU" would be with a home.....You' (the negative posters) on the other hand, probably wouldn't survive without your blanky, your steak, and your nice cental heating,,,,He survived! That is the story! not that he was homeless. Yet you neg. posters had to focus on his living arrangments...He's a man, a human being, on a hiking day, that got caught in a tunnel with a broken leg for 4 days,,,,,nite-time residence or not....I know this is normal fodder for the vine and I'm almost immune to it and should accept it for what it is. It's cool,,it's all cool,,,just lost my head for a minute. I just hope that if I start feeling and spouting your kind of unfeeling, self-serving nonsense, that, with luck, someone with compassion might put a bullet into my suffering. This gentleman did not deserve such negative attitudes......Anywho----I'm almost done,,,Hope your fortune changes a bit there buddy, (if you wish) good luck and speedy recovery,,ZZAR
Don't wind up in a roadside ditch