Deer hunter injured in fall of about 40 feet
A hunter was flown to the hospital Saturday afternoon after falling more than 40 feet down the steep hillside of a Santaquin canyon.
The 41-year-old Santaquin man was “walking in some brush, kind of bushwhacking to scare up a deer for his [15-year-old] son,” said Utah County sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Hodgson.
The man was standing on the hillside next to a large boulder.
“It was raining very hard and the boulder dislodged,” Hodgson said. “When it happened it caused him to lose his balance and he cart-wheeled through the air down about 40 feet.”
The man’s knees bent backward when he landed, police said.
Police were called just before 11 a.m. and search-and-rescue crews found the injured hunter in the canyon, about 4 miles east of Santaquin.
The hunter was taken by helicopter to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.