Image via Utah Highway Patrol
Seeing a photo shared by Utah Highway Patrol of a Chevy Silverado crushed by a falling boulder in a canyon is enough to make anyone assume there was at minimum one casualty. However, by an absolute miracle, nobody was even hurt in the incident which went down in Ogden Canyon on March 30, which is weird but also wonderful.
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The Silverado, which looks like it was a pretty nice pickup, is surely totaled after the freak accident near milepost 10 on State Route 39 between Huntsville and Ogden. While the owner will have to file a wonderful insurance claim, at least he or someone else isn’t in the hospital or worse.
According to UHP, the truck was parked in a dirt area off the road when a boulder came loose from the side of the canyon and tumbled down, crashing the poor Chevy.
It looks like the initial strike might have been on the roof, since that’s where the most significant damage is located. We’d guess from there it traveled down the windshield, then the hood, before ending up at the edge of the pavement on the shoulder.
Had anyone been sitting in the Silverado, in either the front or rear seats, they undoubtedly would’ve received significant head injuries, perhaps more. The entire roof was crushed inward by the boulder strike, the middle by well over foot, maybe two.
As for the boulder itself, it appears to be rather small, probably smaller than a microwave. Yet with the kinetic force and its density, it did quite a bit of damage.
In the springtime as snow melts, sometimes loosed boulders like this will come tumbling down the sides of mountains. This means if you’re spending time in canyons, you need to watch for debris like this, either actively coming down towards you or already sitting in the road.
Image via Utah Highway Patrol
