Overheating has been blamed for the fatal collapse of a Death Valley tourist who tried to drive away from a trailhead while disoriented.
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Peter Robino, 57, of the Los Angeles County city of Duarte, died on Aug. 1 at the parking lot for the Natural Bridge Trail, a press release from the national park said.
Other hikers told rangers that Robino was stumbling and speaking nonsensically as he returned from the trail, a 1-mile round trip, but had refused help.
He got in his car and drove it off a 20-foot dropoff at the edge of the parking lot. The car rolled over, and its airbags deployed.
Other visitors helped Robino back to the lot and called 911. He reportedly stopped breathing shortly before the medical crew arrived, and he died in the ambulance.
Robino had been hiking around 4 p.m., the hottest part of the day. At Furnace Creek, temperatures reached 119.
An autopsy conducted by the Inyo County Coroner found that Robino died of hyperthermia, the park’s report said.
It was the park’s second heat death of the summer. A motorcyclist in a group from Germany died in July, on a day the temperature reached 128.
Also in July, a tourist who lost his flip-flops while walking in hot sand had to be airlifted to a hospital because of severe burns to his feet.
