Rogue snowmobiler kills Iditarod dog
Tragedy struck the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the early hours Saturday morning when a rogue snowmobile drove into two dog teams about eight kilometres from Koyukuk on the Yukon River, killing one dog and injuring three others.
While racers Aliy Zirkle and Jeff King will l i kely never forget the attack, the incident’s perpetrator says he can barely remember it happening at all. That’s because he was, by his own admission, blackout drunk.
On Friday night, native Alaskan Arnold Demoski hopped on his snowmobile, drove home and crashed in his bed after a night of partying with friends. On Saturday afternoon, the 26- yearold was arrested, according to the Alaska Dispatch News.
Demoski had been partying in the upriver village of Koyukuk, then made the 35 km drive northeast to the home he shares with his parents in Nulato, a small village in western Alaska. He was, allegedly according to his own account, too drunk to be driving, a common problem in a state with vast distances between towns and few means of public transportation.
Demoski heard about the incident shortly after waking up Saturday morning, and upon seeing the front panel on his snowmobile was missing, called the village police.
“I knew it was me right off the bat,” he said. “I called the (village public safety officer) right off, told him it was me. I told him I’d do what- ever they wanted me to do ... I feel really bad for what I did.”
A few hours later, he was charged with second- degree assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and six counts of fifth- degree criminal mischief, according to State Trooper Robert Nunley.
The incident happened at 2 or 3 a. m. Saturday on Day 6 of the famous Iditarod race, an annual 1,600- km sled- dog trek from Anchorage to Nome. According to King, a four- time Iditarod champion, a snowmobile made several attempts to run his team over. The encounter resulted in t he death of 3-year-old Nash and inflicted non- life- threatening injuries to two others: 2-year-old Banjo and 3-yearold Crosby. King also sought medical treatment after reporting the incident.
“It literally took as long as a snowmachine takes to go 80 mph the length of a dog team,” King said. “It’s a millisecond.”
As for the race, defending champion Dallas Seavey was leading Sunday, gunning for his fourth win in the nearly 1, 600- kilometre contest, with his father among his closest rivals.