| Salt Lake City |
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| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
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| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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TRAX accident relegated Olympics to back burner
By Diane Urbani
Deseret News staff writer
Rupert Davies' father and mother, Dennis and Mal Davies, were like many University of Utah students' parents: delighted about coming to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Olympic Games.
"We had this elaborate schedule. Dennis bought our tickets over a year ago," remembered Mal, who with her husband flew from Dexter, Mich., to visit Rupert and his wife, Monica.
But the day before the Games began, a left turn onto 1100 East changed the Davies family's plans.
Rupert, 28, and his father, 55, were headed up 500 South toward the U.'s recreation center. They hoped to rent snowshoes and touring skis for a day in one of the Cottonwood canyons.
The usual route, 1300 East, was closed in anticipation of the Olympics' opening ceremonies, so Rupert turned onto 1100 East — but into the path of an oncoming TRAX train. The collision ripped Rupert's Honda Accord in half, impaling the rear end onto the nose of the train and hurling the front end some 50 yards.
Both Rupert, who was driving, and Dennis, the passenger, had to be extracted from the bloody wreckage.
Dennis said he didn't feel anything at the point of impact, but moments after that, "I had the feeling that I was being crushed." He said he never heard the train coming.
"The first thing I remember was being on top of my dad. He was screaming that he couldn't breathe," said Rupert.
Father and son were transported to separate trauma centers; Rupert to the University Medical Center, Dennis to LDS Hospital.
"In a trauma situation like this, they need all of their staff (at each hospital), so they take them to two different hospitals," said Monica Davies. Dennis had suffered a collapsed lung, a separated shoulder and multiple facial injuries; all of his ribs were broken. Rupert had a concussion and a fractured collarbone.
But Dennis, before going into surgery, told emergency workers to call Big City Soup, where Mal and Monica were waiting to meet their husbands for lunch.
"We thought they were kidding" when the call came, said Monica. Police drove them to the two hospitals.
The Davies family had tickets to nine Olympic events, ranging from hockey to the Pilobolus Dance Theater. Instead, Dennis underwent two surgeries, to reconstruct his nose and jaw and to stabilize his shoulder and abdominal injuries. He's spent 20 days so far at LDS Hospital and hopes to be released Monday.
Rupert was discharged after only one night, so has been able to attend three events: the men's hockey match between Sweden and the Czech Republic, combined downhill and the 1.5K cross country sprint. Mal and Monica went, too, to shield Rupert and his still-healing collarbone from the jostling crowd. The events were exciting, especially with the fervent Czech and Swedish fans, Rupert said.
"But I was more concerned about how my dad was doing," he said.
Dennis, meanwhile, has watched the Olympics on TV in his hospital room. His family has tried to keep his spirits up by recounting the events they attended and showing him pictures they took with their digital camera — "until it broke," Monica said with a rueful laugh.
Yet, "we've had a lot of help" through these trying weeks, said Rupert. His brother Nathan Davies, 25, and Nathan's fianc his mother, "I'm coming."
Dennis' longtime friend Brian Eaton, with whom he had coached high school soccer many years ago, also caught a flight to Salt Lake City from his home in New Hampshire.
"The Olympics," said Mal, "paled compared to what we have had to deal with."
Dennis added that he hasn't felt especially bitter about missing the events he'd anticipated for so long. "I've been too busy recovering, fighting" near-fatal injuries.
Monica and Rupert, both graduate students at the U., will be driving to campus when classes resume next week. 500 South probably won't be their route, but Monica worries about other drivers traveling alongside the TRAX line. The 1100 East intersection has a no-left-turn sign. Many TRAX intersections have a lighted train icon to signal approaching trains — but there's no such signal eastbound on 500 South at 1100 East. Rupert had the green light; he had turned left at this intersection in recent months, before the no-left-turn sign was posted there. The train had come around the 500 South curve without sounding its horn.
"This is a brand-new system," Monica said of the University TRAX line, which opened Dec. 14. If more flashing signals aren't installed, "I just fear for the future."
Utah Transit Authority spokesman Kris McBride said adding more signals may not be the answer. "We're going to thoroughly investigate the accident," he said. "We'll do whatever it would take to make it safe. But right now, we feel that it's a safe system."
Monica said that if the TRAX operator had sounded his horn, the crash might have been prevented.
McBride cited the UTA policy that operators should use their horns "any time, to warn a person or people approaching the area. . . . They don't sound it at the (500 South) S curve unless they feel the need to."
If train horns are used too much, McBride added, "no one will hear it. They get used to it. We have to strike a balance."
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com
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February 23, 2002
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