[ROX]

This is the whole article for you to read:

National Park Clarifies Details Of Crash Search



Shawn J. Soper, Staff Writer

ASSATEAGUE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE (02/25/2005) - It has been three weeks since the tragic single-vehicle accident in the Assateague Island National Seashore that claimed the lives of its two young occupants and questions still remain unanswered, but parks officials are ready to put the incident behind them and get back to the business of running the facility.

On Saturday, Feb. 5, around 9:30 p.m., the OnStar vehicle-equipped emergency services system received a call from a frantic woman in or near a vehicle in distress from a location determined to be on Assateague Island. While OnStar could not make verbal contact with the victim, it did relay the incident’s estimated latitude and longitude coordinates to Worcester County Emergency Services, which in turn relayed the provided information to park rangers on Assateague.

A subsequent search of the 12-mile designated off-road vehicle area on the island proved fruitless and the search was ultimately called off. Early the next day, surfers discovered an overturned Hummer SUV and the body of its driver, Adam Starkey, 25, of Cockeysville, Md. near it in the surf in an area where off-road vehicles are not allowed.

An all-day-long, multi-agency search-and-rescue operation was initiated because of the uncertainties about the possibility of additional victims, but it was ultimately called off around dusk. A little more than 12 hours later, a state park ranger found the body of Starkey’s passenger, Jennifer Holly Ashe, 24, also of Cockeysville, about a half-mile south of the Ocean City Inlet and nearly five miles north of the Hummer accident scene.

The State Medical Examiners Office last week determined the cause of Starkey’s death to be leg injuries complicated by hypothermia, As of yesterday, the official cause of death for Ashe had still not been determined.

The medical examiner’s report on the official cause of Starkey’s death indicates the victim survived the initial crash and likely perished because of exposure to the elements, but it will never be known if he or his passenger could have been saved had the accident been discovered that first night.

Park rangers did utilize GPS equipment and maps to attempt to find the vehicle in distress using the latitude and longitude coordinates provided by OnStar, but were unable to locate the vehicle, according to Assateague Island National Seashore Chief of Education and Interpretation Robert Fudge.

“We use GPS equipment quite frequently for resource management and we had some information relative to that,” he said. “We were able to do some coordinate work that first evening, but we weren’t able to locate the vehicle in distress.”

Fudge said the information provided by OnStar through Worcester County Emergency Services did not fully explain the gravity of the situation.

“We had very limited information from the OnStar alert,” he said. “We knew that it was a distress call, but it was pretty unclear to the responding rangers that they were looking for an overturned vehicle in the surf.”

Fudge said because of the vast search area and the lack of established roads or other firm landmarks, it was difficult to locate the accident on the first night.

“OnStar gave the coordinates to the county’s emergency services, who in turn passed the information along to us,” he said. “Using the information, we made the best effort we could to pinpoint the vehicle in distress. There are no cross streets on the island and the coordinates we received were not exact to the actual location. We had a general idea but it was a pretty vast area to explore.”

After the park rangers’ initial search was called off late that first night, it wasn’t until the Starky’s body and the Hummer were found early the next morning that a comprehensive multi-agency search was conducted of the entire area. It remains to be seen if a similar search conducted the night before could have possibly found the crash site and the victims.

“The sun was down and it wasn’t until the next morning when the Hummer and the driver’s body were discovered that a multi-agency operation was launched including two helicopters from the DNR and the Coast Guard,” he said. “We can initiate a search-and-rescue operation, but there are a lot of mitigating factors.”

Fudge said the park service routinely reviews its emergency response procedures and policies and no changes were likely to be implemented as a result of the tragic accident.

“There are no plans for any changes in our policies or regulations,” he said. “The regulations we have in place work but the individual did not follow them. He was driving in an area not designated for off-road vehicles, and he was traveling at a high rate of speed, certainly in excess of the speed limit.”

That does not mean the parks service is ready to close the books on the investigation from its end.

“We have measures in place to prevent this type of tragedy from happening, but we always recommit ourselves to taking a closer look at things,” he said. “We feel pretty good about what we have in place, but we will continue to investigate things.”