Press Release
The Custer County
Sheriff’s Office

—May 19, 2025
[Last]  weekend Custer Sheriff’s Deputies responded to three separate motorcycle crashes. Our thoughts and prayers are with the riders who fortunately all survived the serious crashes. These crashes occurred in the area between Wetmore and Mackenzie Junction encompassing the area commonly known as Hardscrabble on Highway 96 in eastern Custer County.
In one crash, Sunday evening, an off-duty deputy happened to drive up to the downed motorcycle first and called 911. The friends of the downed rider asked the deputy for a tourniquet. The deputy had one tourniquet in his personal car. Additional on-duty deputies arrived and described the injuries as life threatening. The deputies described one leg as “partially amputated” and one arm “partially amputated”. Before the response was over, we applied a total of FOUR tourniquets to get the bleeding completely stopped.
If you ride a motorcycle, wearing a helmet is critical to ensuring your survival if you make a mistake and crash. Right up there with a helmet in life saving importance, is a tourniquet attached to your jacket for quick access. Do you have a friend or loved one who rides a motorcycle? If so consider buying them a tourniquet to protect them when they ride especially in rural areas like Custer County where an ambulance must travel a long distance to reach the patient. Consider taking the Stop the Bleed class   so that you can help yourself and others who need help after a traumatic incident. You cannot use a belt successfully as a tourniquet. It won’t get tight enough to stop the bleeding on injuries like this above the femur, or fully lock in place.
We bought our tourniquets for our deputies from Snakestaff Systems. You can also find tourniquets at sporting goods stores and firearms dealers. Are you going on a motorcycle ride this coming holiday weekend? Buy that tourniquet today.