Walk In The Park.....Moab, UT

[gelsw]

This happened several years ago in a GMC 2500 tow vehicle:

At OK RV in Moab Utah for a couple of weeks. Since it is supposed to rain this afternoon thought we would take an easy and quick morning drive up Long Canyon since it is short and close to town, has an unexpected surprise near the end and then an easy drive back into town. We stopped and got some coffee to go and proceeded out Potash Road, found the turn to Long Canyon and off we went down the Canyon. Started out as hard packed red clay/sand, a beautiful drive with breath taking scenery.

After a mile or two we start climbing up and there is some snow on the road in the shady areas. Stop at the first patch of snow for another round of picture taking, go to take off again and the rear wheels spin a little. OK, to be on the safe side I put it into four wheel drive and we are off. Make it through several more shady snow covered patches and notice that there is only a half inch or so of snow over ice so stay on the areas no one had already driven on for the extra traction. Shortly we come around a corner and there it is. A huge house size boulder that has fallen over the road but it is so large we can still drive under it. Nancy is not happy since she knows my "surprises" for her usually involves scaring her to death, which is fairly easy to do here since she is afraid of heights. Frequently on the way up she had closed her eyes or stared at me so she would not have to look at the cliff on her side.

We paused for another round of pictures of the rock and to let her get her nerve up to let me drive under it. I had wanted to stop under the rock but it looked slick and I decided to keep my momentum going to get to a little hump on the other side and stop on it. We did and took yet another round of pictures of the other side of the rock.

Starting up again I told Nancy don't be afraid but I am going to go a little faster now to get the momentum up to make it over the steep grade in front of us, the steepest yet. Took right off and was doing great, until suddenly just short of the top all four wheels are spinning. I quickly slammed on the brakes to keep from rolling backwards, but, the harder I pushed the faster backwards we slid. We are sliding backwards out of control towards a cliff......

I remember thinking if I don't let up on the brakes we are going to slide over the edge for sure. I think I let up on the brakes but can't really say for sure. I don't remember turning the steering wheel either however the steering wheel was up against the left stop and suddenly we hit the vertical wall on the left side because the turned front wheels had suddenly caught traction on something which jerked the front end around, put the rear wheels in the ditch and still had enough momentum going to swing the front end all the way around, overlooking the down side cliff on the way by, and then come to a stop just above the hump we had left a minute before but facing the way we had come CENTERED in the road.

(007 couldn’t have done a better J turn!!)

Only then did Nancy see my face and realize that I had not been driving but hanging on for dear life. Then she was really scared because she had thought I was backing up real fast to scare her, not knowing I had no control over the truck at all.

We calmed down and I got out of the truck to see the damage but could find none. So what did we hit that spun the truck around and stop the downhill momentum?

There was only one tire skid mark that went into the ditch, the left rear, the skid mark from the right rear stopped at the top of the ditch, rotated about 180° and then led to where the truck was resting on down the hill. The front tire skid marks made a neat half circle around the ditch impact point. There was no evidence of hitting the cliff wall, with the bumper or any of the under carriage.

I wish I could say it was my expert driving skills that got us out of that situation but I was hanging on hoping the truck would slide into the ditch and not over the cliff.

Now it is time to consider our position, we are almost at the top of the cliff, nothing separates us from the top but a sheet of ice. We are facing back down hill and i certainly don't want to try turning the truck around and attempting going on up. But, there are known slick spots on the way down and now I realize it was about 32° when we left town and near 40° now so the snow covered ice is melting and getting slicker by the minute. Also the rain is expected in an hour or two so we need to get off this cliffside NOW before it is all wet ice and we are stuck here. Now is a fine time to think about the above, so much for the morning "walk in the park" drive.....(found out later that just past this point is Pucker Pass, so narrow that had I made it another 50' or so we would have gotten wedged in sideways for sure)

OK, we decide that Nancy will walk down the snow/ice covered areas and I will try to drive the truck down before it gets any slicker and if it gets too slick (and the unspoken I don't end up over the side) I'll park the truck and we will walk the several miles back to the highway. I manage to make it down past the snow covered areas with little problem, wait for Nancy and we head back to town.

On the way back we also realize no one knew where we were going and we had no water or food since it was a "walk in the park" drive. The lat and long of the house sized rock is: N 38°32'36.22" W 109°42'23.28". Google Earth shows about a 90' drop off the edge to the bottom and it is not a vertical drop but the truck would certainly roll over and over to the bottom. No one would be able to see us unless they were standing right at the edge of the road. The whole time we were on the mountain there was not another vehicle. If we had gone over the side and been hurt who knows how long it would be before someone happened to see the wreckage and find us.

Started paying more attention to the self rescuing signs then.....

Gary

[tbutler]

You should start a blog.  Stories like this are what blogs are all about. 

This is the kind of story you hear in aviation safety seminars.  Almost every aviation accident has a chain of events that happen leading to the eventual accident.  The decisions made in that chain are analyzed and lessons learned by all.  I'm going to guess that you would now make a different decision when encountering the situation you did with snow on the road as you ascended a steep hill.

When I was just starting to drive I would find parking lots covered with snow and just fool around spinning the wheels or hitting the brakes hard in a turn and then applying the recovery from skids techniques that were in the textbook for drivers education.  It is one thing to read about how to do it, quite another to experience it.  I developed a feel for a skidding vehicle and confidence in the recovery technique properly applied stopping the skid and gaining control.  Experience is the best teacher! 

Years later I did the same with airplanes.  I took a course in recovery from unusual attitudes.  After an intense review of flying techniques with fighter plane instructors, I flew two different days as part of that course.  They had me put the plane in every kind of unusual position, upside down, skids, spirals, stalls, spins, inverted stalls, inverted spins and each time using techniques discussed in the classroom I was able to bring the plane upright and recover controlled flight. 

You just never know when you are going to experience a loss of control in a vehicle or airplane.  Being prepared is the first step in a safe recovery..

In 2004 at an FMCA National Convention I took a safety course (RVSEF) for driving motor homes.  Two days of instruction and I had a certificate for my insurance company.  I also learned many useful attitudes and techniques for driving a large vehicle like a motor home.  One of the things I remembered was what to do and what not to do to control a motor home when a front tire blows out.  Two years later, after making the trip to and from Alaska in 2006, a front tire blew out.  I was on the Interstate in northwest Missouri.  The techniques I learned in that safety course worked perfectly, I was able to maintain control and safely get the motor home off the road and onto the shoulder. 

Every kind of vehicle has it's own set of rules for safe operation and best techniques for surviving emergencies.  If you drive it or fly it, you should learn all you can about how to control it.

[dkreuzen]

I have gone down Long a few times and up once. This trail is one of the few in Moab that is very slippery when wet, especially at the top. Even though I drive a very modified Jeep and always travel in a group, I would not go up this trail when it's wet. The section you didn't get to probably would have stopped you even if it was dry as it very dug up and a long wheelbase pickup without a lift and lockers would probably get hung up.

[gelsw]

dkreuzen,

Only later did I find out that the section I almost made it too was called "Pucker Pass" and for very good reason. We came down it and the GMC just barely fit between the walls, coming up and slick would have got jammed in sideways for sure.

While not a professional driver (like a OTR truck driver) I have done my share of driving, averaged 35,000 a year when working. Dreaded to see summertime and all the amateurs going on vacation with a van full of kids heading to the beach about 10-15 miles over the limit, clueless that they are blocking lanes, jumping from one lane to the other and then back to get ahead of one vehicle and the constant tailgaters. Firmly believe that drivers need retested every five years and to get a license need intensive training similar to a pilot.