Falling Off Black Bear Pass

Shit happens. The guy made a simple mistake that just so happened to be the perfectly wrong one.

 

From what I understand they were both ejected somewhat early on. Luckily I guess, if it’s appropriate to say that in this kind of situation.

 

I’d do it sooner rather than later, cause every year they keep shutting down more and more trails out here. In part because of things like this are happening.

 

It's easy to judge other's mistakes from the outside looking in, but everyone makes them. And we don't know every detail. It's unfortunate that this guy's mistake one resulted in such a big accident but luckily no one died as a result. And it is something he's going to have to live with.

That being said I would advise anyone that offroads on trails like this to never just rely on your ebrake to hold the vehicle (if that's actually what happened here). Having a manual trans I know I certainly never would. If I'm stopped on a hill for whatever reason and have to get out of the truck, I pull the brake and shut it off while keeping it in gear to prevent it from moving. If I can I stuff a rock behind/in front of a tire to chock it.

It's a crazy video, having been on many steep, high elevation and narrow trails I can say this is one of my worst nightmares.

 

To add, it’s a good idea to turn your wheels towards the wall side of the trail weather parked up or down hill.

 

This is why I always turn my wheels into the bank. Then if the brake fails or whatever the truck just moves a few inches into the bank and stops.

 

Terrifying. Based on what I've seen from friends its been a pretty active year for rescue and recovery of off roaders in Colorado.

 

Surviving an incidents like this is a miracle. Hope she has a good recovery.

Many years ago now, I had an employee fall asleep and drive a 1981 Ford Bronco off a western Colorado two lane. It ended up tumbling about 3500 feet down. According to the report I read, the the first flip flattened the roof and sealed him in the cab. Beat up but alive - seat belt let him twist over sideways and live.

Aftermath, aside from the lost vehicle, tools and injured man - we got a big bill for retrieving the carcass..... Winching the wreck out of there took some serious work.

 

Did the business insurance cover the recovery or was that on the business?

 

I don't remember the numbers..... too many years ago. I'm sure the little bean-counters in the basement would have been keeping score and getting in a claim on everything possible. But I believe our "deductible" was huge and the bill rivaled the value of the two or three year old vehicle and that's what caught my eye.

The engineer, he was pulled out of the wreck by a couple of oil field hands that happened to be taking the same "short cut". Otherwise would have been there awhile.

 

Was it ever confirmed how/why this happened?

 

Gravity played a major role

 

Could be big if true