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Second accident in nine days.
Last Saturday, June 7, Woodland Hills (WH) resident Ron Cook, father of eight children, was traveling north (downhill) on lower Oak Dr. on his ATV, when he applied his brakes to make a left turn. The next thing he knew he was flying through the air. Cook was on his way to his friend Mike Slater's house when the accident happened. Slater reports that he was watching Cook coming down the hill and lost sight of him behind the trees. The next thing he saw were the wheels of the ATV flying upside down above the trees.
The vehicle flipped more than once and landed on its wheels. Slater was the first one on the scene and asked another person to call 911 while he attended to his friend. Slater says Cook was completely disoriented when he arrived at Cook's side.
WH First Responders were quickly at the scene administering medical assistance when the ambulance arrived. Cook was bandaged, strapped onto a stretcher, and being moved into the ambulance when one of the medics asked, "How are you feeling?" Cook responded in jest, "I felt better before you guys arrived."
Deputy Sheriff Doug Willes was in neighboring Elk Ridge and was dispatched to the scene where he did an excellent job of maintaining vehicle and crowd control. He said that Cook was very fortunate not to have been more seriously injured since he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. As one person pointed out, Oak Dr., at the scene of the accident, is a very dangerous location because the road is very steep and makes an abrupt 90 degree right turn at the bottom. For this reason, the City Council made the road one way only, going south and uphill, as vehicles have a tendency to travel too fast going downhill. This is the second, single vehicle accident at that location in the last nine days.
Slater reported the next day that Cook has a broken collar bone and multiple pavement burns, bruises and scratches. |
