ATV accident near Zion

The ride ended in fire, not in the park itself but in the off-road country that feeds the Zion spring-break orbit. Fox 11 reported that two Inland Empire teenagers were badly burned when an all-terrain vehicle overturned and caught fire during a family trip in southern Utah. (foxla.com) The two girls were identified as Brooklyn Mallet of Corona and Elena Pastorino of Yucaipa, and both were taken to a burn unit in Las Vegas for specialized treatment. Family friends at the scene included off-duty and retired firefighters, who Fox 11 said got the flames out within about two minutes and started emergency care on the spot. (foxla.com) The crash happened while a caravan of friends and relatives was heading back to camp in Utah desert terrain near Zion’s travel corridor. KTLA reported the date as April 2 and said the group was based around St. George, the city many Southern California families use as a launch point for Zion and nearby dune riding. (ktla.com) That detail matters because “near Zion” often means a wider recreation zone, not a paved overlook inside Zion National Park. Utah.com says all-terrain vehicles are not allowed inside Zion National Park, but riders regularly use nearby areas such as Sand Hollow and Coral Pink Sand Dunes, where sand trails sit just outside the park tourism machine. (utah.com) One of the busiest of those areas is Sand Mountain, next to Sand Hollow State Park. The Bureau of Land Management describes Sand Mountain as an open off-highway vehicle area with miles of technical trails and open riding terrain, and Utah State Parks markets Sand Hollow as a place where visitors can ride the dunes and camp in the same trip. (blm.gov) (stateparks.utah.gov) Southern Utah gets this traffic because Zion is one of the country’s biggest park draws. The National Park Service says Zion logged nearly 5 million recreation visits in 2024, which means the roads, hotels, campgrounds, rental fleets, and off-road areas around it all surge when school breaks hit. (nps.gov) The injuries were not minor. KTLA reported that Brooklyn, 15, suffered burns over about 40 percent of her body, was airlifted to Las Vegas, and had already undergone multiple surgeries by April 6, with her family expecting at least two months in the hospital. (ktla.com) Utah’s own safety rules show how seriously the state treats this kind of riding. The Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation says helmets are mandatory on public land for riders under 18 and recommends gloves, abrasion-resistant clothing, and over-the-ankle boots for everyone using off-highway vehicles. (recreation.utah.gov) Another southern Utah crash the same week shows how fast dune riding can turn catastrophic. Fox 13 in Salt Lake City reported that on April 5, a driver in Washington County was charged after an off-roading vehicle jumped about 15 feet from a sand dune, crashed, and caught fire, leaving one passenger with critical burns. (fox13now.com) So this was not just a vacation gone wrong at a scenic stop. It happened in the high-speed, low-visibility off-road landscape around one of America’s most visited park regions, where a spring-break day can move in minutes from red-rock sightseeing to a burn-unit flight across state lines. (foxla.com) (nps.gov)