Alaska Iditarod Musher Recounts Horrific Training Run Collision With SUV

When an SUV slammed into musher Karin Hendrickson's four-wheeler Tuesday evening, she was thrown into the air and her dogs ran from the scene of the accident. She landed in a ditch about 20 feet away, then began making phone calls.
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When an SUV slammed into musher Karin Hendrickson's four-wheeler Tuesday evening, she was thrown into the air and her dogs ran from the scene of the accident. She landed in a ditch about 20 feet away, then began making phone calls.

"I just started trying to get ahold of local mushers to say, 'My dogs are loose and they're hurt and someone needs to come and get them because I can't,'" she said Thursday from her hospital bed at Providence Alaska Medical Center.

Hendrickson, a four-time Iditarod finisher, suffered three broken vertebrae and badly bruised legs. Local mushers and volunteers found all 14 of her dogs -- all escaping serious injury.

Though, when 44-year-old Hendrickson looks back at the crash, she said, "Nobody should have survived a wreck like that."

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