Posted on 09/16/2022 6:19:12 PM PDT by george76
Three people were killed during an off-roading tour of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains when their Jeep plunged over a cliff on Monday...
Arizona tourists Diana Robles, 28, Ofelia Figueroa-Perez, 60, and hired driver Don Fehd, 72, were all killed when their 2022 Jeep Gladiator drifted off the edge of Ouray County Road 361 and landed hundreds of feet below...
The vehicle first fell 100 feet to the bottom of a cliff... It then rolled about 140 feet down a rocky embankment, ejecting Fehd...
...
Before the crash, Robles, a Yuma nurse, had reportedly just snapped a picture of the iconic Imogene Pass, a “thrilling” trail that is the second-highest drivable pass in Colorado
...
Monday’s accident marked the second deadly crash in the area in just a week. On Sept. 5, an Arizona man was killed and his wife was injured when their ATV rolled hundreds of feet near Imogene Pass
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yikes!
Shouldn’t have gone on an off roading tour. But if they did, they should have stayed on the road.
Sounds like a scene out of Postman Always Rings Twice.
Unfortunately as usual stupid people ruin everything for the rest of us.
We all know that these trails will soon be closed forever because danger or something
Jeep trips are quite common there and very beautiful. I’ve been on one or two. Can’t say I’d ever do it again though. The drop off are terrifying and the “roads” are quite narrow.
A roll bar won’t help you very much in that situation.
That is a rough pass road. I never would try it or Black Bear.
Just going through that first part, a 100 foot freefall down the cliff, probably gave the elder driver a heart attack.
He had very likely been driving up and down those mountain sides for years. All it takes is one mistake or one distraction from looking at the road ahead.
Hey driver,
FAIL!
My brother lives not far from there. The roads are really dangerous.
Many people like to take a horse, mule or donkey into the mountains. The animals are probably more agile than are human drivers.
It’s terrible this happened. Prayers.
Your brother is fortunate to live near one of the prettiest places on earth! Ouray and the dallas divide are gorgeous!
When I die, I want to die suddenly in my sleep, like my grandfather...
I am guessing the trip idea originated with the 28-yo and she talked her 60-yo aunt into going. Sad.
Fortunately he lives just over the line in New Mexico so he can still have hi-cap mags for his Sig.
Beautiful picture in the story I can see why someone would want to do it.
'Black Bear Road' by C.W. McCall
Me an' RJ an' the kids was on a camp-out in the mountains, and we had us one'a them U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep cars which we rented from a fella by the name of Kubozke for thirty bucks a day, buy your gas along the way, take a rabbit's foot and leave a pint of blood for a dee-posit
And he 'splained it all to us how we was supposed to get to Telluride, which is fifty miles away by way of the regular highway, however, there was a shortcut but unless we had drove the Black Bear Road before, we'd better be off to stay, stay in bed and sleep late. (Pay no attention to the gitar there.)
Well, we took up off'n the highway and we come upon a sign says "Black Bear Road. You don't have to be crazy to drive this road, but it helps." I says, "RJ, this must the shortcut road Kubozke was talkin' about." She didn't pay no mind, 'cause she was makin' peanut butter sandwiches for the kids in the back seat throwin' rocks and drinkin' Kool-Aid and playin' count-the-license-plates. But they wasn't havin' too much fun a-countin' license plate or cars, 'cause there weren't no other cars
We went about a mile-and-a-half in about four hours, busted off the right front fender, tore a hole in the oil pan on a rock as big as a hall closet. Went over a bump and spilt the Kool-Aid and Roy Gene stuck his bolo knife right through the convertible top and the dog threw up all over the back seat. Peanut butter don't agree with him, you see
So we had to stop and take off the top and air everything out and clean it up. The dog run off and RJ says she felt her asthma comin' on. I was sittin' there wonderin' what to do when the en-tire scenic San Joo-wan U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car sank in the mud. At thirteen thousand feet above sea level
Well, we shoveled it out and ate our lunch, the dog made a yellow hole in the snow and Roy Gene got out his Instamatic and took a snapshot of it. Mary Elizabeth drawed a picture of the road; it looked like a whole bunch a' Zs and Ws all strung together. And RJ took one look at it and said that the only way that Jeep car is goin' down that road is over her dead body. Then a rock slipped out from under the wheel and the U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car went right over the edge of the cliff. Yahoo-oo-oo-oo!
"Doggone-it, Roy Gene! How many times do I have to 'splain it to you? When I tell you to put a rock under the wheel, I mean rock! Now look at that, what you have there is no bigger'n a grapefruit."
There is something not said here. The road from the turnoff up to Camp Bird mine is a 2 wheel drive road. Past the mine it is 4x4. Now it is narrow in a couple of areas but in comparison to other shelf roads, it’s a dream drive. Inattention or meeting someone going too fast, but this section is not a slip and fall drive.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DWF0l1SYD2Y
The animals want to keep living.
Vehicles, no such dimension.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
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