The driver of a snowmobile that killed a dog and injured several others has said he did not deliberately drive into two dog-sled teams competing in a race.
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Arnold Demoski, 26, of Nulato, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and six counts of criminal mischief.
King, a four-time Iditarod champion, was behind Zirkle and fared worse.
One of King’s dogs died and at least two others were injured.
“I’m really bad. Someone tried to kill me with a snowmachine”, she said on a video posted to the Iditarod Insider webpage. King also sought medical treatment after reporting the incident.
Nome officials on Monday said they plan normal security measures as this Bering Sea coastal community celebrates the end of the almost 1,000 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska, an event Mayor Richard Beneville has compared to “Mardi Gras with dogs”. On Sunday, a man accused of attacking Zirkle and another musher in a snowmobile appeared in court. Since then, 12 mushers have scratched, including a four-time champion. King sat at a table with tears in his eyes and spoke quietly of the incident. King told the Iditarod Insider the snowmobile narrowly missed him and his sled, but hit his dogs at high speed. “He didn’t turn around”. King talked about triaging the dogs on-scene and that while he considered pushing the emergency button on the Global Positioning System tracker carried by all racers, he decided that loading the dogs and continuing to the checkpoint would be faster than waiting for help.
King said he had two lights on as his team traversed the 40-foot-wide trail that snakes alongside the Yukon River.
Beneville, wearing an “Iditarod” stocking cap, called the attacks on mushers Aliy Zirkle and Jeff King an aberration. He talked about the troubles of substance abuse and violence that are a sad fact of life in many Alaska Native villages.
In a phone interview with the Alaska Dispatch before his arrest Saturday afternoon, Demoski apologized for the incident and denied reports that his actions were intentional.
“There was a time in this race where I thought I had a small market share when it comes to who had a chance at winning this thing”, Dallas Seavey said. Demoski was taken into custody and flown from Nulato to Fairbanks Correctional Center.
A judge set his bail at $50,000 (£35,000).
Fairbanks District Court Magistrate Dominick DiBenedetto said during Sunday’s hearing that if the allegations are proven true, they could amount to an act of terrorism. Attorney Bill Satterberg declined to comment to the newspaper.
The crash happened early Saturday morning near the checkpoint in Nulato. People were trying to win the Iditarod by going on farther, or longer and longer runs.
Demoski, a natural-resources coordinator for the Nulato tribal council, said he believes he came out of his drunken blackout state after the collisions revved up his adrenaline. While most of the competitors are from Alaska, racers have come from Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Brent Sass is also out of White Mountain. King was running in 14th.
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He checked in at 9.48 a.m. Monday for the mandatory 8-hour layover at the checkpoint before continuing on the final 77 miles to Nome by way of Safety.
