I said I would update with information from the Alaska Dispatch News (which I earlier misidentified as well...brother! It used to have another name...)
I apologize for slipshod thinking in my previous post although, in spite of that, I linked to the article and blockquoted excerpts. That would allow you to see that I was quick to judge — I made presumptions about the snowmachiner, 26 year old Arnold Demoski that I ought not have. I know better. And I have known young men such as this one in high school in Anchorage; villagers came to town for the school year. This is a phenomenally sad story. I do believe he may have been blind drunk. This is not an excuse for anything, just a probable reality which I had given little weight if not entirely blown off.
Jeff King, the musher whose dog Nash was killed said he had named him after Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and …
I claimed earlier that such an incident was unprecedented; I was wrong.
This is not the first time a musher has been hit by a snowmachine on the Iditarod trail. One dog was killed and another injured in a similar incident in 2008 in a team belonging to Minnesota musher Jennifer Freking. Freking was parked on the Yukon River between Koyukuk and Nulato at night when a snowmachiner hit her team. Freking went on to finish the race in 50th place.
That blows my mind as much as anything else in this story.
Villagers from the place in which Demoski lives offered condolences to King (several times a champion musher) for his loss and will have a fundraiser selling crafts to offer a gesture of compensation to him and Aliy Zirkle.
According to the article by Caldwell, Hanlon, and De Marban, King said:
"I feel very sorry for the village and for the person involved because it obviously sheds light on social problems, not shared by the whole village but unfortunately the weight is carried by the whole village," King said. "Is it possible this will shed light to some that will change behavior in the future? You can only hope."
I hope healing occurs for all involved.