Phoenix-Mesa, AZ Metro Personal Injury Blog

Arizona has 13 species of rattlesnakes, more than any other state. Leave rattlesnakes alone if you find them, and be on the lookout when you are outside for them. 

Many people believe that you can tell how old a snake is by the number of segments in the rattle. However, this is incorrect. A snake gains a segment each time it sheds. Sometimes a snake can shed more than once a year. In addition, segments often break off. 

Rattlesnake Safety
Offer them respect, observe them from a safe distance, and then leave them to perform their valuable ecological function. The only good snake is a live snake!

Most rattlesnakes have relatively weak venoms when compared to the world's true vipers and cobras. Copperheads and water moccasins have comparatively weak venoms as well. 

Rattlesnakes will make every effort to avoid contact with people. We are far more dangerous to this secretive animal than it is to us. In almost every case, we are treading on the snakes' home territory when we encounter them, and in almost every case, the rattlesnake looses its life. Many bites are the result of someone trying to capture, kill, or handle the snake, and a good number of bites occur to snake keepers, both private and professional. The bite is a defensive reaction and should not be considered an act of aggression. The rattlesnake's rattle offers the snake a means of communication, designed to warn larger animals of their position.

In the United States, humans experience about 8000 bites from venomous snakes each year. Of those, an average of 12 per year, less than 1%, result in death. Far more people die each year from bee stings, lightning strikes, or almost any other reason. 

By Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, July 18, 2010
 
James Gregg / Arizona Daily Star Kenny, a 4-foot-long Western diamondback rescued from a neighbor's porch by U.S. Geological Survey herpetologist Cecil Schwalbe, poses at Schwalbe's home. He keeps Kenny for scientific demonstrations and to show at lectures.

Related Links
• Related: Database: Critters of Southern Arizona

Somehow, at some point, rattlesnakes have gone stealth. When they see something they want to bite -- be it a dog paw or human foot -- they're striking without rattling.

If you come into contact with an animal you suspect has rabies, please seek medical treatment immediately. Rabies is often fatal if you do not get immediate help. The rabies virus travels to the brain by following the peripheral nerves. The incubation period of the disease is usually a few months in humans, depending on the distance the virus must travel to reach the central nervous system.[2] Once the rabies virus reaches the central nervous system and symptoms begin to show, the infection is effectively untreatable and usually fatal within days. 

Once the virus is in the central nervous system, the brain may swell and the person can die.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

Staff And Wire Reports | Posted: Saturday, January 2, 2010
PHOENIX - Health officials say Arizona had a record number of rabies cases in 2009.
The state Department of Health Services says 261 animals tested positive for rabies, 85 more than in 2008. About a third of the 2009 cases were in Pima County.

During the record-breaking year, two counties established quarantines - another first for Arizona.

Santa Cruz County in December instituted a 60-day quarantine for the entire county, similar to Coconino County's quarantine earlier in the year. Both counties ordered people to keep their dogs in their yards or on a short leash, bring dishes of pet food indoors at night and vaccinate all pets.

Rabies is transmitted through bites or saliva contact with a rabid animal. In 2009, 47 people in Arizona were exposed to confirmed rabid animals. They received the correct treatment quickly and the infection was stopped.

by Krystal Klei - Aug. 12, 2010 01:35 PM  The Arizona Republic
A driver suspected of slamming his Mercedes into a semitruck Thursday morning and causing the closure of Interstate 10 could face DUI and endangerment charges, authorities said.

The crash happened at about 6:45 a.m. when the driver of a dark Mercedes -- which also had a male and female passenger - reportedly lost control while driving at a high rate of speed heading west on Interstate 10, DPS spokesman Bart Graves said. 

Witnesses told DPS officers they believe the Mercedes was driving about 100 mph.

The female passenger told authorities she was kidnapped. However, DPS officers found no truth to her claim, Graves said.

Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 4:18 pm
A teenage girl hiking with a large school group in the Sabino Canyon area had to be rescued after collapsing Wednesday afternoon.

She was one of two teen's in the group who needed medical assistance during a hike to the Seven Falls area in the canyon, officials said.

< view images of Sabino Canyon on Google Image Search > 

About 60 people from a church and school were hiking in the area on Wednesday, officials said. Authorities received a call at about 1:30 p.m. saying a teenage girl had fainted and fallen on the hike. The high in Tucson on Wednesday was 103 degrees.

A second call was received from the group saying that another teenage girl had passed out near Seven Falls.

That hiker was transported by helicopter from the canyon to a hospital in serious condition, officials said.

DAILY SUNS STAFF azdailysun.com | Posted: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:00 am
A rapid, famed for its tenacity for stranding Grand Canyon rafters, caught hold of another two boats this past weekend, requiring passengers to evacuate, and help from helicopters and other boats.

A motorized Western River Expeditions boating trip was hung up in the "rock garden" at Crystal Rapid in the Grand Canyon on Friday, prompting the National Park Service to fly in fast boats by helicopter to rescue 16 passengers and crew and take them to shore on Friday evening, according to the National Park Service.

> View Google Video Search results for Crystal Rapid in the Grand Canyon <

This is an area of the rapid where other boats have also run aground in past years, nearly 100 miles downstream from where boaters launch at Lees Ferry.

Posted: Monday, August 9, 2010 5:37 pm | Updated: 6:41 pm, Wed Aug 11, 2010.
Garin Groff, Tribune 
                             
The first pedestrian bridge to span Tempe Town Lake will be in place faster than originally planned because of the dam burst that drained the body of water.

> photos of dam removal
> images of bridge
> YouTube video

The bridge on the lake's west end will open in May of 2011, about a half-year ahead of schedule.

Tempe was already prepared to replace the west-end rubber dams when one burst July 20, and the empty lake means they can be replaced in a matter of months instead of over an entire year if the lake had been full.