Gnarly video from Telluride where a 23-year-old woman was seriously hurt after a rollover crash. The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office reports she was in a Jeep with her 22-year-old male friend off the Black Bear Pass road. The friend told deputies he shut off the engine, applied the emergency brake and stepped out of the Jeep to help direct a driver behind him around a tight turn. He said the jeep started to roll while the woman was still in the passenger seat. The man tried to jump back into the Jeep to steer it, but he was thrown into rocks when it went off the road. The sheriff’s office said the Jeep rolled down several switchbacks, throwing the woman and two dogs out of the vehicle. It came to a stop on the road. The woman is seriously injured but the dogs are fine. Note that at the time of this recording, there was no longer anyone in the Jeep as the passenger had already been ejected from the tumbling vehicle. There is a GoFundMe campaign for the injured driver you can donate to HERE.
Here is the full video from the folks involved and a couple of answers to questions they have been getting.
Answers to some of your questions:
1) As mentioned above, the dogs are OK.
2) My friend was following a safe distance behind in his own Jeep and with a better view of the hillside, spotted the rolling Jeep first. Reacting quickly, he warning me over our two-way radios. Having been warned I had my head up and slowed down but did not stop since I did not know where the falling Jeep was going to cross my path. As the video shows, I saw it just in time. OFF-ROADING IN A GROUP WITH ACTIVE COMMUNICATIONS CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE.
3) We had met the couple involved earlier on the trail. Spent some time chatting and comparing Jeep mods (of course). Later, when I saw the Jeep come down the hill I recognized it immediately and assumed the worst. What is not shown on the video is me slamming my Jeep into reverse and gunning it backwards, hoping to avoid a possible wider rock slide. Fortunately that rock slide did not happen. After exiting my Jeep I heard the woman calling for help. My friend and I, and many others did what we could to keep her safe until paramedics arrived. Also during this time the owner of the wrecked Jeep worked his way down the slope to get to her. His injuries were relatively minor but not insignificant. I was extremely relieved and more than a little surprised that they both were alive.
4) The owner of the rolling Jeep did not drive off the road. He had parked his Jeep and gotten out to help a following vehicle negotiate a tight turn. His Jeep popped out of gear and gravity overcame the parking brake. He tried to re-enter the Jeep to stop it but got thrown off as the Jeep went over the edge. Just the day before on a different trail, I had trouble getting my parking brake to hold on a steep hill. It happens. WHENEVER YOU ARE PARKING ANY VEHICLE ANYWHERE, paved or un-paved, steep or seemingly flat, please ensure you have fully set your parking brake, have the transmission in Park or the appropriate manual gear, and have turned your front wheels in a direction appropriate for the situation.
5) In the time it took you to read all of this, you could have made a donation: https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-su…. Thank you!
