If you've been following us here at RideApart lately, you've seen us doing our best to raise awareness for the crazy number of wires that are put up on public trails, targeting dirt bike and ATV riders. And, in some unfortunate instances, reporting on horrible injuries to raise awareness and ensure that those of you who are riding these trails are aware of the dangers.
Unfortunately, we have a story about another injured party due to foul play on the trails in Utah.
A dirt bike rider, Daniel Bender, was knocked off his bike and injured by a "black wire, between two trees." while riding on the Hidden Forest Trail in American Fork Canyon.
Speaking about the incident, Bender said, "It was metal, like a light gauge baling wire; but small enough that there was no way I was going to see it. Thick enough that it didn't break," Bender said. “The wire caught my helmet and then went into my mouth and scraped me like that and threw me off the back of the bike. It could have been a lot worse, you know. It could have hit me in the neck, it could have caused more permanent damage."
Bender was left with small cuts all over the inside of his mouth and small ones on the outside, "like the joker"—ironically, this act couldn't be further from funny.
The Utah County Sheriff's Office opened an investigation, according to public information officer Sgt. Ray Ormond, who said, "Historically, these are kind of a few and far between type incidents that have happened... They could potentially face reckless endangerment charges, which would be a class A misdemeanor which potentially could be punishable by a year in the county jail and a fine,"
A year in county jail seems like an outrageously minor consequence for setting a wire up at neck height in the hopes of catching someone moving quickly. The reality is that someone could have died, and people have in similar situations, and the consequences need to reflect the actions. If a person attempted to murder someone by decapitating them, you wouldn't expect the offender to get one year in county jail.
Hopefully, the consequences for these actions become more severe, and we'll see a reduction in the crime itself.
