| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porter, John | 30 | Male | Bruise | Hip, thigh |
On March 31 a group of cavers entered Soldier's Cave in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Tulare County, California. In the early evening they had reached the Ladder Room. As they were exploring, the floor suddenly gave way beneath John Potter (30) and he fell about 15 feet. He suffered leg and hip injuries and was unable to proceed. A party member was dispatched to summon help.
At 11 p.m. the National Park Service was notified and Larry Brown, Paul Fodor and four other personnel were dispatched from Ash Mountain Station. They arrived and began rigging the cave for the evacuation. Fodor descended the 60-foot drop to assess injuries and direct the rescue from that point. Brown was stationed above the 60 and the other four rangers were scattered through the upper part of the cave. The two uninjured cavers remained with the victim.
The injuries were assessed as badly bruised hip and thigh and a possible broken ankle. The evacuation began at 3 a.m. and ended at 9:15 a.m. when the victim was placed in his car for transport to a hospital.
Analysis: Although Potter had been in the cave before, he was unaware that the floor of boulders and small cobbles across which he was walking was a false floor only 10-12 inches thick. An accident like this is probably unavoidable.