Riders4Helmets extends out deepest sympathies to the family of 48-year old Cheryl L. Camilleri who died of closed-head trauma August 8th, 2012. Camilleri had been trail riding in Hidden Falls Regional Park, Auburn, California with two friends and the group was making their way back to the trailer. Camilleri was riding behind her friends and when they looked back they saw her horse running up a different part of the trail. When the friends caught up with Camilleri she lay on the ground unconscious and some passing hikers were attempting to assist her. “Her fall wasn’t witnessed,” Dena Erwin, public information officer for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said, “so they’re just assuming she fell or was thrown off of her horse. No one will ever know.”
Brooke Smith, Camilleri’s daughter, said “one of Camilleri’s friends rode back to the trailer to try to get cell phone reception to call 911, while the hikers and second friend remained with Camilleri, but by the time the friend returned Camilleri was no longer breathing.”
When medics arrived they performed CPR, but Camilleri’s breathing was by then off and on. She was taken to hospital but her brain was severely damaged and their was nothing that could be done to save her life. She was subsequently taken off life support.
Camilleri was not wearing a helmet at the time of her fall. “That’s something that her and I never do is wear a helmet,” said Smith. “Something as simple as that could have possibly saved her life.”
Please always wear a helmet when you ride….it might just save your life.
I have been a horse trainer and riding instructor for 35 years and I always wear a helmet. I also insist that my students wear them. It amazes me to see otherwise intelligent people riding without one. I suspect they don’t wear one because it doesn’t look “cool”. Well, I have news for them…they won’t look cool with 100 stitches in their head and drool running down their chin after a traumatic head injury…..THAT is not cool. I have personally seen helmets save lives (one of them mine…more than once…and I don’t fall a lot) more than 6 times. That is 6, count them, 6 people (including me) that probably would not be here if not for a helmet.