October 18, 2018
From Frank Wagner, McCall.com
A deer hunter was injured Wednesday night in the state game lands along the Appalachian Trail in Moore Township when he fell 18 feet from a tree stand, police said.
The hunter, carrying his bow, fell around 7:40 p.m. in the woods north of Delps Road and 4 miles east of Danielsville, township police said. He was taken by ambulance to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.
“He’s an archery hunter in his 50s,” Patrolman Matt Hyman said. “He was hunting up on the state game lands and he fell out of a tree stand. He fell on his back and he was complaining of back pain.”
Family members, who were hunting nearby, found him and called 911 for help. Klecknersville and Northampton medics were dispatched.
“He’s hurt,” Hyman said, “I don’t know the extent of his injuries, but I think he’s going to be fine. He was climbing out of the stand and he just slipped and fell.”
The bowhunter appears to have been in a “lock-on” tree stand, which is strapped to a tree and is attached to a ladder that lets the hunter climb to a high perch.
Hyman was concerned that he saw no evidence of a safety harness to prevent a long fall.
“You see this quite a bit every year, hunters falling out of stands,” he said. “I look at that and I think, where’s your safety harness? I deer hunt but I wear a harness. The harness catches you.”
The night’s heavy breeze was a little risky, too, he said.
“I never would have been out hunting today with all this wind,” Hyman said. “That could have been a factor. I don’t know. But you have to be careful.”