Authorities Rev Down Off-Road Event

GLAMIS, Calif. -- Drunken crowds that converge on long Thanksgiving holidays at the Algodones Dunes have been so dangerous and unruly that law enforcement officials decided this year to respond like they would to a forest fire.

Ten federal and local agencies assembled 150 officers. They brought in National Guard jeeps, dune buggies and a helicopter. They searched for drugs, alcohol and weapons, and set up barricades along a popular hill that had been the site of raging parties and gruesome deaths in crashes and shootings.

And it worked, at least compared to what happened last year.

Most importantly, none of the 170,000 duners that met in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area this weekend was killed, something even enthusiasts said can happen because of the sport’s danger or because of the mix of alcohol and young revelers.

Last year over Thanksgiving, two people were killed in separate crashes, one person was shot to death, and a park ranger suffered minor injuries when he was run over.

“They’re not going to get away with it in our county any longer, and they have for a long, long time,” Imperial County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Sharon Housouer said Sunday. “We were able to go in, show a force and shut it down without any really significant incidents occurring this year.”

Twenty-five people were arrested, compared with 70 last year. One of those arrested for disorderly conduct this year was an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, Housouer said. About 700 citations were issued, which was less than half last year’s number. About 170 medical emergencies were reported, two requiring air transport. That was down from 200 last year.

Bob Mason, vice president of the American Sand Assn., an off-roading organization, and a duner for 40 years, said he was pleased with the lower numbers but still concerned with the more dangerous element that has shown up in the last three or four years. There was a time when fellow duners would help each other in a jam, he said. Now, if a duner leaves his vehicle in the sand overnight, someone will set it on fire, he said.

Mason and others pointed out that most of those who attend the event come only for fun, to camp, race their vehicles within the rules or drive about the dunes.

Still, officers kept close tabs on large concentrations of people, especially at night. When 3,000 partyers congregated at Oldsmobile Hill on Saturday night, officers quickly dispersed them. The crowd moved about a mile away, where they set bonfires and held a drag race. They also drove through a fire they had set in a ditch. An hour later, they were dispersed again.

When the revelers found a third site, officers moved in. Angry partyers threw sand-filled cans at the officers. But no one was hurt, Housouer said.

Eric McDonald, a 32-year-old carpenter from Phoenix, who said he was drunk and planned to drink more, complained that things were much tamer than last year. “It’s just a lot more mellow,” he said. “I think everybody’s scared. It takes the thrill in coming out here away because I come here to watch the idiots.”

But all around there was still plenty to see. Fist fights sprang up between rows of vehicles at Oldsmobile Hill. Spotlights were pointed at a woman who took her clothes off on top of a makeshift stage. Someone set a couch on fire.

Then there was the main event, the one officers didn’t mind: Dirt bikers and four-wheel, all-terrain vehicles raced each other up a 280-foot mound of sand, and then back down again. The high-pitched buzz of their engines nearly drowned out the more throaty roar of trucks below.

It is, in fact, the drivers of those trucks that law enforcement said bring most of the chaos. Often, their drivers have nothing to do with the duning that goes on during the day. At night, they bring in furniture and sometimes magnesium to burn, along with alcohol and people to party, Housouer said.

They had an easier time finding a party before the Imperial County Board of Supervisors implemented a curfew this month on what is called Competition Hill. The hill can be seen from California 78.

Mason, of the duners’ group, blames the truckloads of partyers for soiling the off-roaders’ reputation. The majority of duners are heavily invested in the sport, he said. His buggy cost $50,000 and has an 8-cylinder Sprint race-car engine and the transmission of a ’79 Buick Riviera.

Some spend as much as $100,000 building their buggies, he said, and bring their families out to ride and to camp.

Mason’s group handed out “Duner’s Survival Kits” with safety brochures and a video and worked to self-police the off-roaders. Several times a year the group gathers volunteers to clean up the dunes, which on a holiday weekend like this one, are littered with cans and trash.

Environmentalists also watched over the events this weekend.

Terry Weiner of the Center for Biological Diversity wondered how many of the 700 citations this year were issued to duners who crossed into protected areas. About half of the 150,000 acres of dunes, which stretch from the Mexican border to the Chocolate Mountains 40 miles north, are closed to off-roading.

Stephen Razo, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the agency wouldn’t know how many violations occurred until later this week.

Weiner said in one 15-minute span Saturday, she witnessed four people cross into protected lands with four-wheel, all-terrain vehicles.

Environmental advocates said the dunes are a unique ecosystem.

One plant, the milk vetch, is a threatened species subject to federal protection.

“The violations were worse than I’ve ever seen them,” said Weiner, who has observed the Thanksgiving weekend events for the last three years.