Ford F-150 Driver Somehow Not Dead After Truck Falls Off 300-Foot Cliff

It may be true that they don’t build cars like they used to, but despite so many boomers insisting that’s a bad thing, it really isn’t. New cars are so much safer than they used to be, it isn’t even a competition. At this point, as long as you wear your seatbelt, the kinds of crashes you can survive are absolutely mind-blowing. For example, take this recent Ford F-150 crash in Colorado that our friends at Road & Track found. Despite falling 300 feet, the driver escaped with minimal injuries. 

According to the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team’s Facebook post below, the driver went off the side of U.S. Highway 550 between mile markers 88 and 89, falling into the Uncompahgre River Gorge. Known as the “Million Dollar Highway,” Highway 550 offers an absolutely gorgeous drive that really does live up to its name. As beautiful as the views are, though, trying to appreciate them from the driver’s seat is a recipe for disaster, since the sharp turns and lack of guardrails mean you could easily end up exactly like this F-150 driver (or worse). It was a blast in a Mini, but I don’t know if I’d want to do it in a full-size pickup truck.

As you can see from the photos provided, rescuers had to rappel down the side of the cliff in order to rescue the driver, who was somehow still alive after their tumble into the gorge. Currently, it’s not clear whether they were treated at a hospital or what their injuries were, but considering the condition of their truck, they’re probably just happy they didn’t die. Hopefully, they also better appreciate the hard work that automotive engineers put into making their cars as safe as they are these days. 

Unsurprisingly, this F-150 driver is far from the only person to crash on the Million-Dollar Highway this year. CBS News reports that on August 5, two adults died when their Honda Civic went off the road near mile marker 88 and landed upside down in the river. When a rescue crew arrived on the scene, they were able to rescue a child who had survived the crash. Authorities later released their names, confirming that 42-year-old Louis Michael and 79-year-old Leoba Valdez died in the crash. So far, authorities have not released the name of the child, presumably because she is a child.

According to CBS News, two days later, a 78-year-old woman drove off the road about three miles from the scene of the crash that killed Michael and Valdez, but she survived. Later, on August 23, a 65-year-old woman died when her motorcycle went off the road and fell into the canyon. There aren’t many guardrails along Highway 550, but one area that does have guardrails recently demonstrated just how important they can be. On September 30, a Toyota Sienna driver hit a boulder, slammed into the hillside and then slid into the guardrail that prevented it from falling more than 800 feet.

So why doesn’t the Million-Dollar Highway have more guardrails? As CBS News explained: 

Snow plows reportedly need the open edge to push off large amounts of snow which fall on the roadway every winter. The Colorado Department of Transportation conducts regular closures of the highway during the season to bring down dangerous snow from the mountainside above the road. Plows then quickly sweep the roadway clear rather than loading it and hauling it away.

Stay safe out there, wear your seatbelt and if you meet an automotive engineer, don’t forget to thank them for making it possible to survive a 300-foot tumble into a gorge.