A woman was killed at Burning Man just after midnight the morning of August 28th.
According to Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham, Alicia Louise Cipicchio, a 29-year-old resident of Jackson, Wyoming, suffered fatal injuries early Thursday morning after falling under a large vehicle at the annual Burning Man event in the Black Rock Desert in Northern Nevada near the Center Camp at the festival.
It is not known whether drugs or alcohol played a role in the incident but
Burning Man organizers are continuing to work with law enforcement to
investigate the accident.
This is an unfortunate event but not completely uncommon as deaths do happen at
Burning Man due to the location of the festival.
Humboldt General Hospital is more than 120 miles from Black Rock City, but travel time is more than 6 hours because of the roads. The shortest travel time also adds 100 miles to the trip, and while the hospital has a helipad for air transport, dispatching and getting there still takes time.
Burners should be aware that medical care beyond what volunteer doctors and health-care workers provide can be tough to get quickly and that while the most recent death before today was in 2007 when an attendee fell under a trailer, the risk Burners take when migrating to Black Rock City is very high.
Our thoughts go out to the family, friends and camp mates of the victim.
Thoughts on this blog post? Tweet us @InsuringEvents
acknowledgments to David Normal, illustration by DA of Black Rock
(aka Dominic Tinio), model/photo: Stardust Magick