Scary moment at the skateboard park: 'We will wear helmets from now on'
Port Angeles paramedics and law enforcement personnel tend to the injured skateboarder in a bowl of the Port Angeles Skate Park on Race Street. -- Photo by Chris Tucker/Peninsula Daily News
By Leah Leach and Jim Casey Peninsula Daily News
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And from now on, his best friend says, the skateboarder will wear a helmet.
The Port Angeles boy spent nearly five hours in the Olympic Medical Center emergency room Tuesday, said his 19-year-old sister, Validia Swagerty.
His back and unprotected head had slammed against the concrete at the Port Angeles Skate Park at Race and Second streets just before 3 p.m., said Sgt. Jack Lowell of the Port Angeles Police Department.
He wasn't wearing a helmet, said Gabriel Connors, 17, who described himself as the injured boy's best friend.
"None of us were," Connors said.
"We will be wearing helmets from now on.
"It scared me, for sure."
'Front side invert'
Swagerty was performing a "front side invert in the big bowl," when he "fell on his back and head, and had a seizure," Connors said.
"I was praying all the way to the hospital," said the injured skateboarder's great-grandmother, Cecille Doss.
"Thank God, he came out of it."
Swagerty had been discharged to Doss' Port Angeles home by 7:30 p.m., after tests showed "no harm done," she said.
"We've got him home now," Doss said.
"He's asleep right now. We're going to watch him for 24 hours."
"He's doing OK. He's still not aware of what's going on," Validia Swagerty said.
Added Doss, "They might have to do more tests."
Lowell confirmed that none of the skateboarders was wearing helmets when emergency workers arrived at the park at about 2.:51 p.m.
"There was a young man skating in the park," Lowell said.
"He had been doing quite a bit of skating, and was going from side to side when he fell over backwards, striking his upper torso and head on the concrete."
Port Angeles Fire Department paramedics stabilized the boy and took him to Olympic.
2006 fatality
City spokeswoman Teresa Pierce said she didn't recall any serious injuries at the park, built in 2005, since June 16, 2006.
That's when skateboarder Frank Russo, a 14-year-old Stevens Middle School student who was not wearing a helmet, died of head injuries he received in a fall at the park.
Since Russo's death, skateboarding contests have been held — and helmets given away — in his memory.
Helmets are not required, although signs recommend them.
In July 2007, the Port Angeles City Council voted unanimously to begin a public safety campaign encouraging helmet use for numerous high-risk activities, including skateboarding, and name the effort after Russo.
At the same time, in a memo to the City Council, City Manager Mark Madsen said a mandatory skateboard helmet law citywide "would be virtually unenforceable" and would increase city liability.
State law says that the city has no liability so long as it doesn't charge for the use of the park, said Doc Reiss of the Nor'wester Rotary Club in 2006.
The club built the $300,000 park and donated it to the city.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: August 26. 2008 9:00PM