Survivorman, Les Stroud Survives Major Car Crash in Mongolia (Video)

On July 10th 2015, Les Stroud aka Survivorman and his faithful crew were driving through Mongolia in a caravan of four vehicles. After shooting 14 episodes of Survivorman and Survivorman Bigfoot over the past ten months, this was the second to last episode to shoot. Even Les’ son Logan (famous for his involvement on Surviorman and Son) was along for this shoot, acting as the official production stills photographer. Les was in the back seat of a Toyota Land Cruiser, third in line in the caravan of four vehicles. Along the way they crested over various hills while sticking to narrow dirt tire tracks and on a few occasions the caravan would stop. The drivers would discuss things in Mongolian and then, more often than not, turn around and try a different track. They were 10 hours into the journey with the sun setting in the distance in the Mongolian grasslands. As Les recalls it, he was looking out the front window from the middle of the back seat, when all of a sudden something happened, no one knows what, but suddenly the car spun sideways and skidded for approximately 25’. It then began to roll hard and fast. It rolled twice fully before coming to a stop upright. The two vehicles in the front kept driving, unaware that the crash had taken place. The last vehicle was a micro-bus with all of the crew’s camera gear inside. They saw the whole thing and started flashing their lights to the cars that were in the lead. It was Logan who looked back and saw the flashing light so he instructed with great urgency that they needed to turn around. On the way back to the scene of the accident the two lead cars assumed it was just another missed turn they needed to take. As they got closer they saw the car upright and thought nothing of it, until piece by piece they could see debris laying all over the ground including back packs and camera cases that were travelling with Les.
 

At first Les did an initial check to ask if everyone was alright. They were. So it was then that Les let his adrenalin settle and the pain of his injuries kicked in. All he had left to say was “I’m hurt” and then he fell to the seat unable to talk for about 10 minutes. One of the travelers in the crew was a doctor and she held Les’s head and neck fearing the possibility of a spinal or neck injury. When he could speak again, and knowing this would be the concern, he quickly informed those helping him that he could feel and move his fingers and toes, but that he could not get up. Slowly, as the two lead cars arrived and began to realize the severity of the situation, Les, with help, was lifted to a sitting position in the car. Once settled, two of his first words were: “Max………..film…….” . Max Attwood, who for many years has been responsible for getting all of the beauty b-roll shots for the Survivorman series, trees, time-lapse, forests etc. (and in the process, winning along with Les – the CSA award for best photography) reluctantly agreed, to yet again grab his camera and start shooting during a stressful situation. By the time the local paramedic arrived in an old Russian jeep, the reality of the situation was settling in; Les had sustained some serious injuries and it was very likely that he had broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder. What they didn’t know was that it was actually much worse.

What took place next was a combination of comical and tragic. It began with one of the Mongolian hosts standing up on top of the micro-bus so she could acquire a weak phone signal. Through this communication, she was told that the hospital helicopter would not come this far out as they wouldn’t have enough gas to make the journey. After much deliberation, it was decided that the first trek would be 7 hours away to a small town that had a hospital with an x-ray machine. They had lost one vehicle due to the crash so this meant squeezing everyone into three cars for the rough and bumpy journey. However, the owner of the crashed vehicle said he would need to stay (with his other car) and that they couldn’t leave until police showed up in the middle of the Mongolian grasslands. They were now down to one vehicle and the microbus (along with the paramedics leading the way in an old Russian jeep). The entire crew had to squeeze into the micro-bus and sit or lie on top of hard shell camera cases for the next 7 hours of desert driving. Les was put in the back seat of the only car left. The paramedics, in spite of being told and eventually warned, to slow down and lead the group properly, instead went as fast as they could, often leaving the other two slow moving vehicles in the dust. The crew was unaware of which turns to take in the dark Mongolian night, under the cover of an immense starfield. By this time, the Mongolian drivers were so exhausted from so much driving that they almost routinely fell asleep at the wheel, nearly driving off the ‘road’ each time. It was Les who finally issued a command to take an hour minimum sleep break while sitting in the cramped vehicles.

When they arrived at the town, the hospital was situated in between two derelict buildings. They had to knock on the door to wake up the nurse who was asleep on the couch in the entrance-way. To make a long story short – the x-ray machine was so old that the images taken of Les’ broken bones were overexposed on one side of the picture and underexposed on the other. The visit was pointless as the “doctor” just kept saying “he is fine”. The journey continued to the capital city seven hours away.

This time, the journey would be spent driving down a “highway” filled with large potholes. The happenings would not end here. The micro-bus broke down half way. Les was put in a small car with a new driver from the previous hospital town and this driver decided he was practicing for formula one racing. His average speed on a pothole covered roadway with cows and sheep and horses standing on the edge, was around 140km per hour (close to 90 miles per hour) in his little hatchback. Les was in the back seat which had no seatbelts. The road to the town was so bumpy it actually popped Les’ dislocated shoulder back in place.

In the end, Les sustained the injuries of three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, torn chest muscles and a punctured lung. When he felt the relief of the shoulder popping back into place, he proposed that he might be ok in a day or two and they could keep shooting. Better judgment prevailed, however, and he was flown to Toronto, Canada. Unaware of the punctured lung, he flew for 20 hours including a stop in Beijing but not before bumping into none other than actor and martial artist Steven Seagal (who gave him injury advice, prophetically suggesting that if Les has a punctured lung he really shouldn’t fly.) In the two weeks that followed he managed to perform with the rock band Journey on stage and shoot a commercial on top of a glacier in the mountains of British Columbia. He is currently planning his winter music tour and next seasons filming of Survivorman and Son (with Logan – who recently survived cancer – like father like son!)

[via Reddit]

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