A Grand Junction man survived a direct hit to his truck from a rockslide on a remote stretch of western Colorado highway last Tuesday morning after a series of circumstances delayed him just long enough to avoid a likely fatal situation. He shared the story to his social media pages, describing the terrifying event in detail.
Mike Chavez, a Colorado based real estate agent, had departed Grand Junction at 4:00am bound for Nucla when the slide came down across the roadway along the Dolores River corridor, a stretch of canyon road with no cell service and sharp curves that cap vehicle speeds around 55 miles per hour. A phone sliding off his center console forced him to pull over briefly before the incident, a stop that he estimates took about one minute.
Not far up the road, a boulder described as taller than his truck rolled across the pavement in front of his vehicle before he was struck by the full slide.
“Everything went into what seemed like slow motion. I felt a massive blow. Then a 2nd massive blow and then a third blow which caused all of the airbags to deploy.” – Mike Chavez
Chavez remained conscious and alert following the impacts and managed to move his truck out of the active slide zone as rocks continued falling onto the road and into the Dolores River. He placed traffic cones from the bed of his truck to warn approaching drivers before emergency personnel arrived.
Montrose County Sheriff’s deputies, an ambulance crew, and CDOT personnel all responded to the scene. Paramedics cleared Chavez despite significant pain, and first responders told him that none of them had ever witnessed a driver survive a direct rockslide strike in the area throughout their careers.
After roughly four hours on scene with no tow truck available, Chavez cut away the deployed airbags and drove his badly damaged truck approximately 60 miles back to Grand Junction on his own.
The Dolores River corridor through western Colorado is known for unstable canyon walls, particularly following wet weather cycles or periods of freeze and thaw.
