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Show Man Fined In Hells Backbone Accident A Colorado man charged with abandoning a vehicle in a wilderness wilder-ness area paid a $50 fine after traveling trav-eling from Colorado for his court appearance in federal magistrate court in Cedar City on Dec. 17. Mr. Mudhole, a professional photographer, entered a guilty plea to the charge. Mudhole had reported to authorities authori-ties on May 5 that his 1988 Nissan four-wheel drive pickup had accidentally acciden-tally gone over the side at Hells Backbone bridge the previous day. He told the authorities that his wife Janice Sunshine had arrived in a second vehicle when the accident happened. Investigators found no possessions posses-sions in the wrecked pickup. Mudhole a Reserve, N.M. resident resi-dent at the time, told officers that his insurance company would take care of removing the vehicle, lodged hundreds of feet down in the steep canyon. When several months went by without its removal, a notice no-tice of violation was issued by Don Mosier, law enforcement officer with the USFS. Low bidder H&S Service in Escalante was finally charged with the job of hauling the crushed pickup from its resting place where it resembled a red unrecognizable ball of metal. Howard Miller, Sheldon Steed, Terry Smith, Allen Overall and Greg Shakespear attempted at-tempted to raise it with the winch and cable from Miller's standard large tow truck without success and were forced to bring in Lincoln Lyman's more powerful rig operated by Sam Spencer in a full-day job in early September. By the time he appeared in court, Mudhole's insurance company com-pany had paid $3879 in administrative administra-tive and retrieval costs. The judge took into account the distance Mudhole had traveled and costs of travel and lodging in ordering the $50 fine. |