SALT LAKE COUNTY – A wild crash in the Big Cottonwood Canyon was recorded on tape showing two vehicles driving over the rim.
Everyone survived, but a woman trapped in one of the vehicles had to be carefully rescued.
“It would be awful to see the video of those cars running over,” said Brian Anderton, a battalion chief with the Unified Fire Authority. ‘With a very narrow shoulder alone, the road descends about 23 meters along a steep dike.’
Anderton was part of the team called in to rescue the victims of the crash.
“We were very concerned about the people involved and knew it would be technically and probably a long operation to get them out safely,” he said.
The accident happened around 2 p.m. on Sunday.
A pickup truck emerging from the canyon straight above the “S-curve” can be seen in the dashcam video spinning and hitting a Subaru. Both vehicles pulled off the edge and the pickup truck drove straight into the creek below.
Three people in the Subaru were able to get out safely on their own, as was the driver of the pick-up. But a female passenger was a different story. She was trapped in the truck, upside down in the creek.
“The rescue itself was certainly difficult and dangerous. Sliding down the steep, rock-covered hill that was snowy and icy,” Anderton said. “It was cold for the victims and it was cold for our workers who have been in the water for a while.”
Rescue workers brought in the jaws of life to cut open the truck. They then had to build a complicated cable system along the steep dike and back to the roadway.
After about two hours, they had the woman safely in an ambulance and on her way to the hospital.
“I think all things considered, we had some people happily getting out of there, with that car rolling down the hill, turning around, upside down in the creek,” Anderton said. “Between the cold weather and the water, there are so many things that can go wrong.”
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Tania Dean