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Show 2S D M MDGDGDfflD PSO'lIS Sixteen persons drowned last year during visits to National Na-tional Parks of the Rocky Mountain Region, the National Na-tional Park Service reported. THEY WERE among a total of 25 fatalities that occurred during the year in the 42 national na-tional park areas of Colorado, the Dakotas, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. "Most of these deaths could have been avoided," said James M. Dempsey, Safety Officer for the National Park Service Rocky Mountain Regional Office at Denver. "Each park visitor should use caution and common sense, and heed the safetv pamphlets that describe the special conditions of each park area. The national Parks are no place to ignore basic safety precautions." GLEN CANYON National Recreation Area, with its 186-mile-long Lake Powell that extends across the Arizona-Utah Arizona-Utah boundary, experienced a total of 11 fatalities - nine of them drownings. A single drowning accident last April took the lives of four Denver area residents. Several tragedies were characterized by the unsafe operation of boats or by visitors failing to wear life jackets. Glen Canyon's non-drowning fatalities occurred when a sandstone slab gave way beneath the feet of a 7-year-old youngster, and when a 45-year-old man riding an inner tube towed by a motorboat was swung into the rear of a houseboat. YELLOWSTONE National Park in Wyoming had five fatalities, three of them from drowning. A fourth victim died in a motorcycle accident, and the fifth was a fisherman in a canoe who was struck by lightning. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado had four fatalities. fa-talities. One victim died in a motorcycle accident, another in a technical climbing accident ac-cident and two others in hiking mishaps. CANYONLANDS National Park and Zion National Park in Utah; Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado; and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area in Wyoming-Montana each experienced single drownings. drown-ings. THE CANYONLANDS victim vic-tim apparently attempted to ride a log down Cataract Canyon, noted for its treacherous rapids. Glacier National Park in Montana had a single fatality. The victim was a youth who fell while running across unfamiliar un-familiar terrain. THE 25 fatalities that occurred oc-curred in parks of the Rocky Mountain Region last year were two more than during 1974. Nationally, there were 148 deaths reported in the National Park System. Dempsey urged park visi tors to contacrpark rangers for advice on equipment, terrain and safety practices. Most parks also have regis tration systems that enable specialists to search for and locate visitors who might get in difficulty. |