Should people be held accountable for their actions?

MONTPELIER, Vt -- Four Pennsylvania men who were lost in the woods for 30 hours in December after going out of bounds at Killington Resort were sent bills Thursday for the cost of their rescue by state police.

Each of the men was assessed $4,177.87 to cover the cost of the rescue, said Lt. Donald Patch, whose barracks was in charge of the search Dec. 20, a night when temperatures plummeted to between 20 and 25 below zero.

"Let's face the facts: Some people get lost accidentally, things happen, they make a mistake and that's one thing," Patch said. "When you're purposely skiing out of bounds, knowing you're going out of bounds, that's a different story, especially when you're not prepared."

State police say the men from Perkasie, Pa., north of Philadelphia, were negligent because they ignored at least three large, fluorescent orange warning signs that they were off the trails.

The four men -- two on skis and two on snowboards -- from Perkasie, Pa., survived on gum, breath mints and snow melted over a fire they built with a lighter and some wet sticks of wood wrapped with a headband.

Michael Styer, Jared Raytek and Thomas Arnold, all 23, and Jared Rush, 22, were treated at Rutland Regional Medical Center after their ordeal in December. On Thursday, they got their bills.

A message left for Arnold, the only one of the men with a telephone listing in Perkasie, was not immediately returned.

The group skied out of bounds at the Killington ski area around 12:15 p.m. Dec. 19 and finally were reported missing by a friend 15 hours later. State police organized three dozen rescue workers and launched a search at 4:30 a.m. Dec. 20.

A Vermont National Guard helicopter finally spotted the men's campfire about 3 p.m. that day. The men and their rescuers emerged from the woods about two hours later.

Killington Resort, which contributed personnel, snowmobiles and a snow tractor to assist in the search, did not bill the men, spokesman Tom Horrocks said. The resorts have given up responsibility for searches and rescues to state police, he said.

"It's one thing when you get a bill from the (ski) area," he said. "It's another when you get one from state police: `And here's your bill for being ignorant."'

Killington posts signs warning skiers and snowboarders when they're approaching resort boundaries. There also are a series of signs beyond the border to tell people that they've crossed out of bounds and to turn back unless they're experienced in backcountry treks and are prepared for an emergency.

"There's plenty of warning," Horrocks said.

Three or four searches and rescues typically have to be organized each year, said David Dillon, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association. In the past, when the resorts themselves were responsible, the ski areas would occasionally bill people who got lost in the woods. Often, though, the bills went unpaid, he said.

The total $16,711.48 represents overtime for state police and the costs incurred by two local search and rescue teams that were called in, said Maj. James Baker. The cost of the National Guard helicopter was not passed along to the four men.

"We're reviewing one other case from this year. We're looking at that case to determine if we're going to do it," Baker said of a January rescue, also at Killington. "In this case we determined that we believe their behavior put a lot of folks in danger and they knew what they were doing and as a result of that we billed them."

Now I agree with the police. These men skied out of an area marked for the purpose of recreational skiing and caused their own problems. I find it hypocritical of the resort to lambast the state for billing the men when they had done the same in the past.

This is akin to the Department of Wildlife billing people for starting forest fires in areas that were clearly marked for no fires. When you fail to follow the rules the rest of us should not have to pay for your mistakes.

It should be the same for making a false police report, for calling 911 for non-emergencies etc... The last hurdle would be to get criminals and their families to at least share in some of the costs of their incarceration.

I am tired of paying for other peoples mistakes. In places like Rikers Island which is a jail facility in New York the annual cost of running the show is close to $1Billion US dollars. That is a lot of money for one facility, but I will grant that they also house a considerable amount of prisoners (15,000). In 1994 there were reports that overtime pay at Rikers Island was on order of $2.2Million a week over a period of several months.

People who get caught doing the dumb shit should be forced to pay for some if not all of the costs associated with their stupidity. They should be held accountable for their actions and if they do not have the money to pay for their actions then they should be required to donate their time to State/Local agencies until the debt is paid back.