SALT LAKE COUNTY: A wild crash in Big Cottonwood Canyon got stuck on duct tape, showing the moment two vehicles passed over the edge.
Everyone survived, but a woman who was trapped inside one of the vehicles had to be rescued with care.
“Watching the video of these passing cars would be terrifying,” said Brian Anderton, battalion chief of the Unified Fire Authority. “Just with a very narrow shoulder, the road falls about 30 feet down a steep embankment.”
Anderton was part of the team that was called in to rescue the victims of the crash.
“We had a lot of concerns about the people who were involved and we knew it would be technical and probably a long operation to get them out safely,” he said.
The accident happened around 2pm on Sunday.
You can see a van coming down the canyon just above the “S curve” in the video of the remote control camera turning and hitting a Subaru. Both vehicles came out of the shore and the van went straight into the stream below.
Three people from the Subaru were able to get out safely on their own, as well as the driver of the van. But a passenger was another story. She was trapped in the truck, upside down in the stream.
“The rescue itself was certainly difficult and dangerous. Sliding down the steep rocky hill that was snowy and icy,” Anderton said. “It was cold for the victims and it was cold for our workers who were in the water for quite some time.”
Lifeguards brought the jaws of life to cut the truck. Then they had to build a complicated system of ropes to the steep slope and back to the road.
After about two hours, they had the woman safely in an ambulance and on her way to the hospital.
“I think, all in all, we had some people coming out of there luckily, making that car go down that hill, turn around, be upside down in the stream,” Anderton said. “Between the cold weather and the water, there are so many things that could have gone wrong.”
Pictures
Related stories
Tania Dean