Absolutely Crazy Escape From Death

[knapplc]

I ran across this article the other day. According to Utah Police this is 100% true. Read the article, then scroll down to see the photos of the crash. This is just unbelievable.

(CNN) -- What started as a few seconds of terror for a driver in Utah has become a set of photos so unbelievable they're making their rounds on the Web's myth-busting circuit.

Fire personnel respond to the scene of the December 30 accident in which no one was critically hurt.

The driver told police the 1991 GMC pickup was traveling 55 mph through the Mojave Desert town when it left the two-lane roadway. The accident report states the truck left a 92-foot-long skid mark suggesting it was more likely traveling about 83 mph.

After sliding off the road and onto the right shoulder, the driver "overcorrected back left and crossed the oncoming lane of traffic before hitting a cement barricade with the right front of the vehicle," the report states. See the photos at thatsnotnews.com

Investigators estimated that the truck was traveling about 75 mph when it crashed through a concrete barricade separating the road from a roughly 200-foot precipice running alongside State Route 59.

What happened next has been described on Internet messages boards as "impossible," "crazy" and "insane." One Web site ran the photos under the headline, "I bet this guy will be in church Sunday!"

So stunning are the photos on the myth-buster sites that many people posting comments allege the pictures have been altered with Adobe Photoshop.

Not so, say the local police.

After crashing through the barricade, the truck slammed into a concrete drainage culvert on the canyon side of the guardrail. The force of the impact propelled the pickup truck into the air, spinning it 180 degrees counter-clockwise along a guardrail.

"When it hit, it flipped end over end and cleared the culvert," Hurricane Police Chief Lynn Excell said, explaining how the truck sailed over the watercourse, a distance of about 20 feet. "How that happened I don't know."

Perhaps even more astonishing than the flip is that the truck was able to stay on the slender right-of-way separating the road from the cliff, an expanse about 25-feet wide.

"It was amazing," said Hurricane police spokeswoman Mindy Hatfield.

The truck -- its front end smashed -- landed right-side up, facing the opposite direction it was traveling. No one was critically injured, Excell said, but the driver landed mere inches from the cliff's edge -- and certain death.

"Vehicle 1 came to rest facing west approximately one foot from the edge of the cliff," states the police report.

Excell has seen the photos that have appeared on thatsnotnews.com, hoax-slayer.com and the popular urban legends site, snopes.com. The photos are authentic, he said, and accusations that they've been altered are off base.

"Weird things happen," he said, but "that is absolutely a lock-stock-and-barrel factual thing."

And now... the photos. Sorry they're so big.

Photo 1:

The driver left the road on the right-hand-side of this photo where the people are standing next to the broken barrier...


... he then flipped through the air over the culvert in this picture and landed - on his wheels - next to this cliff...


...where he would have fallen to certain death had he missed the landing by even two more feet.


Amazing.

[treat24]

that is insane! lucky man...

i don't really understand how it flipped, but i've seen and done things that shouldn't be very possible or probable too... but that is extreme...

[knapplc]

that is insane! lucky man...

i don't really understand how it flipped, but i've seen and done things that shouldn't be very possible or probable too... but that is extreme...

This is pure speculation, but guessing based on the damage to the truck I'd say this happened: He hit the barrier and went airborne with the front left of the truck going up and over the bottom right (right rear bumper). It flipped at least once but most likely only once, and didn't do a complete revolution - it just did a half of a revolution front-to-back, but a full revolution side-to-side in the air. It couldn't have touched the culvert at all or it would be down there OR at the very least much more banged up.

After that half revolution it landed rear-right first pretty much exactly where it sits now. It didn't hit either side or there would be visible damage on the sides, and it doesn't look like it rolled on its top.

I had to use my glasses case to re-enact this thing the way I think it went down, just to be sure. It's complicated.

[joelamosobadiah]

Man, I would LOVE to see video of that. Something like that will make you rethink your life though I am sure.

[knapplc]

Man, I would LOVE to see video of that. Something like that will make you rethink your life though I am sure.

And quite possibly necessitate trip to the store for some new shorts.


I rolled a car end-for-end when I was 16. It was easily the scariest thing I've ever done in my life. You can feel yourself flipping around and the force is SO MUCH greater than anything your puny little body can withstand, and you get a real idea of just how easy death can be.

You'll be happy to know I survived that crash, though. If I hadn't, it would be really creepy that I'm posting here right now.

[treat24]

Man, I would LOVE to see video of that. Something like that will make you rethink your life though I am sure.

i would love to see a video of knapp reenacting it with his glasses case

and yeah, that makes sense... crazy stuff... lemme tell you growing up in MN you learn to control your car through weather, but i've still had some sticky situations, everything goes in slow mo and is awesome (when things turn out fine)

[knapplc]

Man, I would LOVE to see video of that. Something like that will make you rethink your life though I am sure.

i would love to see a video of knapp reenacting it with his glasses case :-b

and yeah, that makes sense... crazy stuff... lemme tell you growing up in MN you learn to control your car through weather, but i've still had some sticky situations, everything goes in slow mo and is awesome (when things turn out fine)

I even added "crash" sound effects. It had a chilling, realistic quality, let me tell you.

[treat24]

Man, I would LOVE to see video of that. Something like that will make you rethink your life though I am sure.

i would love to see a video of knapp reenacting it with his glasses case :-b

and yeah, that makes sense... crazy stuff... lemme tell you growing up in MN you learn to control your car through weather, but i've still had some sticky situations, everything goes in slow mo and is awesome (when things turn out fine)

I even added "crash" sound effects. It had a chilling, realistic quality, let me tell you.

that would be a top youtube video

i can only imagine it's awesomeness

and probably so realistic it would be scary... it'll make you fear for the glasses life

[BlueBandit24]

That's unreal.

Kudos to those rescue workers on the passenger side for braving the edge of the cliff. I don't know if I'd have the grapes to do that.

[joelamosobadiah]

So Knapp, which is more annoying to your coworkers?

A. The fact that you spend all day on a fantasy football website
B. The fact that you have fantasy football spreadsheets always open on your computer or
C. The fact that you use your glasses cases and geometric equations to re-enact car crashes at your desk?