Former Bayfield Marshal Jim Harrington was seriously injured in a horseback-riding accident Thursday morning.
“He was getting ready for hunting season and was out scouting a hunting camp site in the Granite Peaks area,” said Upper Pine Fire Protection District Chief Bruce Evans, who couldn’t identify Harrington because of provisions in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. “Apparently, his horse reared up and then fell on him.”
Harrington, 66, was unconscious and not breathing after the fall, but he was traveling with his son and a friend, who did chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and got him breathing again.
His companions got him down to their truck at the trailhead of the Los Pinos Trail, driving Harrington to the dam, where they were met by Evans, other Upper Pine deputy chiefs and the ambulance crew from the station at the Vallecito Dam.
A Flight for Life helicopter flew him to Mercy Regional Medical Center, where he was listed in serious condition according to Mercy spokesman David Bruzzese, before being taken by air to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver.
St. Anthony’s spokeswoman Loralee Sturm said Harrington was listed in serious condition Thursday evening.
Harrington served as Bayfield marshal from the mid-1990s through the end of 2009. He left the marshal’s office to become a gaming investigator with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.
abutler@durangoherald.com
