Let's be careful out there, folks: Woman Ejected As Jeep Rolls Down Switchbacks On Bridal Veil Road

[COBill]

Woman Ejected As Jeep Rolls Down Switchbacks On Bridal Veil Road

TELLURIDE, Colo. (CBS4) – Two people were injured after a Jeep rolled off Bridal Veil Road and down several switchbacks. The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office says deputies responded on Saturday afternoon.

(credit: San Miguel County)
Deputies say the driver of the Jeep, a 22-year-old man, told them he turned the car off and applied the emergency brake. He got out to help a driver behind him around a tight turn. The Jeep started to roll with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat.

The driver tried to get back in to try to steer the vehicle, but he was thrown into rocks as the Jeep left the road. As it rolled down several switchbacks, the passenger was thrown from the Jeep.

(credit: San Miguel County)
The car finally landed on the roadway below.

The pair, both from the Durango area, was taken to Telluride Medical Center. The driver had minor injuries. The woman was later flown to St. Mary’s Hospital with serious injuries.

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[Goin2drt]

Sadly by the looks of the Jeep, being thrown from it may have saved her life. Be safe out there.

 

[Roger C]

Not a good week for Telluride. A couple of days ago a plane took off from the Telluride airport and 10 minutes later crashed at the top of Black Bear Pass.(2 fatalities) And now a Jeep rolls down a set of switchbacks.

 

[Kyanche]

Geez that must have been one heck of a fall. I wonder how many times it rolled! Looks like a 2 door JK. And yeah, even with seatbelts at some point there isn't much left to hold ya in. Hope both people recover ok!

 

[COBill]

Not a good week for Telluride. A couple of days ago a plane took off from the Telluride airport and 10 minutes later crashed at the top of Black Bear Pass.(2 fatalities) And now a Jeep rolls down a set of switchbacks.

It's rather sad, it's been discussed on pilot forums.

The guy flying the plane was a United pilot, usually on East coast runs, and was likely unfamiliar with mountain flying and with how little performance a Bonanza has at altitude.

Bottom line, he flew a route no one would ever advise, likely sightseeing, into an area where the terrain rises faster than that type of plane can climb and didn't have room to 180 out.

People were able to take the exact flight path data and pipe it into the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, and even very, very experienced pilots found it nearly impossible to get out of that situation without scraping rocks.

(It's actually really cool that Internet data access and MFS have both advanced to the point where people at home can basically perform crash simulations on their own PCs and see if they could have recovered.)

 

[COBill]

Geez that must have been one heck of a fall. I wonder how many times it rolled! Looks like a 2 door JK. And yeah, even with seatbelts at some point there isn't much left to hold ya in. Hope both people recover ok!

Say it with me now the way Jeep legal would, but is obvious here:

"The sport bar is not a roll bar…"

The photos very clearly show that.

 

[KrzybonesJLU]

Reading this brings me chills. As a person who has survived being ejected out of a car I agree it may have saved her life with the way that Jeep ended up.

 

[COBill]

Just in case others hear rumors, there were also two black labs in the Jeep with her, and both are also OK, though it took a bit of time to locate them.

 

[Kyanche]

Say it with me now the way Jeep legal would, but is obvious here:

"The sport bar is not a roll bar…"

I don’t think any street legal car has that much rollover protection. Even the jeeps were probably intended for if it fell over

 

[chevymitchell]

About a year and a half ago I started incorporating this question into the drivers meetings I hold: Does everyone have an adjusted and functioning parking brake?

It's also been a point of inspection when doing Re-TQ's and general pre-wheeling trip look-overs.

I personally have had 2 times where my parking brake failed me. One was on the trail. Luckily I was able to chase my jeep down and jump in through the back seat and pull up even harder on the lever. Second was at the top of my driveway and my Jeep went through my shed.

I'm usually the guy that gets out to help people behind me and I always used the parking brake. My cable was so worn out that you could practically pull the lever into your armpit. It was time to fix that... after the trail incident.

I'm glad they're both alive and hopefully they recover well. If you've ever been to Black Bear Pass, you know it's not a spot to make mistakes or have anything unfortunate happen.

Those pics are a good reminder to double check your parking brake...

If you have ever disconnected the cables at the drum in the rear, double check that the cable is still connected in the console. You won't know it unless you pull on the cables before re-connecting them. If the cable is very loose and pulls much further than the drum itself, it's disconnected. @mgroeger just went through this and I'm going through it myself after installing the long-arm on my 2 door. It happens most commonly when feeding the cables under the rear cross-member.

Bonus pic of Jeep vs Shed...

 

[UNC Rubicon]

@chevymitchell, I’m a little disappointed you didn’t include video.

 

[mgroeger]

About a year and a half ago I started incorporating this question into the drivers meetings I hold: Does everyone have an adjusted and functioning parking brake?

It's also been a point of inspection when doing Re-TQ's and general pre-wheeling trip look-overs.

I personally have had 2 times where my parking brake failed me. One was on the trail. Luckily I was able to chase my jeep down and jump in through the back seat and pull up even harder on the lever. Second was at the top of my driveway and my Jeep went through my shed.

I'm usually the guy that gets out to help people behind me and I always used the parking brake. My cable was so worn out that you could practically pull the lever into your armpit. It was time to fix that... after the trail incident.

I'm glad they're both alive and hopefully they recover well. If you've ever been to Black Bear Pass, you know it's not a spot to make mistakes or have anything unfortunate happen.

Those pics are a good reminder to double check your parking brake...

If you have ever disconnected the cables at the drum in the rear, double check that the cable is still connected in the console. You won't know it unless you pull on the cables before re-connecting them. If the cable is very loose and pulls much further than the drum itself, it's disconnected. @mgroeger just went through this and I'm going through it myself after installing the long-arm on my 2 door. It happens most commonly when feeding the cables under the rear cross-member.

Bonus pic of Jeep vs Shed...

Dang... this is my reminder to adjust the brake cable when I get to UT. It's still not grabbing the way it should because of how mush use it has had.

Here's my post on how to reconnect the cable if it came undone up at the handle...

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...e-disconnected-from-handle.10240/#post-266717

 

[chevymitchell]

@chevymitchell, I’m a little disappointed you didn’t include video.

https://video.nest.com/clip/1bcb875c88e640749a39b4906b9031fb.mp4

 

[KansasJL]

About a year and a half ago I started incorporating this question into the drivers meetings I hold: Does everyone have an adjusted and functioning parking brake?

It's also been a point of inspection when doing Re-TQ's and general pre-wheeling trip look-overs.

I personally have had 2 times where my parking brake failed me. One was on the trail. Luckily I was able to chase my jeep down and jump in through the back seat and pull up even harder on the lever. Second was at the top of my driveway and my Jeep went through my shed.

I'm usually the guy that gets out to help people behind me and I always used the parking brake. My cable was so worn out that you could practically pull the lever into your armpit. It was time to fix that... after the trail incident.

I'm glad they're both alive and hopefully they recover well. If you've ever been to Black Bear Pass, you know it's not a spot to make mistakes or have anything unfortunate happen.

Those pics are a good reminder to double check your parking brake...

If you have ever disconnected the cables at the drum in the rear, double check that the cable is still connected in the console. You won't know it unless you pull on the cables before re-connecting them. If the cable is very loose and pulls much further than the drum itself, it's disconnected. @mgroeger just went through this and I'm going through it myself after installing the long-arm on my 2 door. It happens most commonly when feeding the cables under the rear cross-member.

Bonus pic of Jeep vs Shed...

I am glad to see somebody post this. Parking brake failure was my first thought when I heard about this. I normally try to find a spot where I can turn the tires into something to help hold the Jeep in place or f it does start to move it won’t be able to move very far. I would rather have the Jeep roll into a tree, side of the mountain or rocks then get away and hurt somebody else or loose the vehicle.
Hopefully all those involved will recover quickly and that people will use this to learn, be better prepared and to remember to take a few more seconds to stay safe.

 

[COBill]

More photos!

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