Elizabethton woman airlifted after 4-wheeler accident

By Kathy Helms-Hughes
STAR STAFF
khughes@starhq.com

   An Elizabethton couple were injured Monday night during a 4-wheeler accident in the Watauga area.
   According to Carter County Sheriff's Department Deputy Sarah Ryan, the couple from Pine Ridge Circle, who are newly married and in their mid-20s, had been to a friend's house in Watauga and had borrowed a 4-wheeler to go riding.
   The couple were unfamiliar with the area and "got off on some privately owned trails," Deputy Ryan said. The driver told the officer that they were going up the trail "and he said he saw some shrubs and bushes and a stick, sticking out in the trail. He said he went through the bushes and hit the stick and it launched them backward."
   Ryan said the man tried to push his wife away as the 4-wheeler was coming back over. "He didn't know whether it rolled over on her or rolled over on him," Ryan said. "He got her back on the 4-wheeler and drove her out of there."
   The driver exited the trail and came out in front of a house at 632 Cripple Creek Road where he obtained help.
   Watauga Volunteer Fire Department responded to the scene and stabilized the woman until Carter County Rescue Squad arrived, then ordered a landing zone for Wings Air Rescue, which flew the woman to Johnson City Medical Center.
   "It's possible she had some internal injuries," Deputy Ryan said. Identification of the victims was withheld pending notification of family members.
   Ryan said the husband sustained scratches, bumps and bruises, and drove himself to the medical center to get checked out.