No injured cavers recorded.
On Saturday evening, April 16, Jeff Cresswell (15) was with a group on the overnight spelunker tour at Cumberland Caverns, a commercial cave in Tennessee. In the Gypsum Crawl, Cresswell was stooping to enter a low crawlway when someone behind and above him dislodged a 15 pound rock. The rock fell about four feet striking Cresswell in the small of the back. He experienced great pain and numbness in his left leg. Fearing a spinal injury, the victim was kept immobile. A registered nurse in another tour party was brought to the aid of the victim. The Warren County Hospital Ambulance Team was called and two EMT's arrived within 45 minutes. They were transported to the end of the Big Room in a station wagon. The victim was slowly and carefully hauled about 400 feet through the Gypsum Crawl, ex- periencing considerable pain even though strapped to a flat board stret- cher. He was removed from the stretcher at one point to be moved through a constriction. The evacuation took about 1 1/2 hours. It was later determin- ed that there were no broken bones or serious injuries.
It is not unusual that novices would not be aware of the hazards of climbing above someone or of being below someone who is climbing.