Man dies after driving car into deep ravine in Veyo

VEYO — A man is dead after the car he was driving plunged straight off a cliff and into a ravine in Veyo Thursday.

A Saturn sedan is destroyed after plunging to the bottom of a ravine under the Veyo Arch Bridge in Veyo, Utah. The driver died as a result of the crash, May 10, 2018 | Photo courtesy of Kevin Dye, St. George News

The man was heading north on state Route 18 through Veyo at about 7 p.m. and was about to cross the Veyo Arch Bridge over the Santa Clara River gorge when he exited the roadway and started driving through the dirt, Utah Highway Patrol trooper Mike Murphy said. He drove past cement barricades on the side of the bridge and rolled his Saturn sedan off the cliff, which is about 80 feet high.

The car suffered extensive damage on the way down; parts of the vehicle were strewn across the ravine. It landed on the driver’s side with the passenger side of the vehicle in the air, Murphy said. When police and other emergency responders arrived on the scene, the man was still alive.

“He was talking and screaming when we got down there,” Murphy said.

An ambulance and an Intermountain Life Flight helicopter rushed to the scene.

Emergency responders secured the man to a stretcher before starting to carry him out on the opposite side of the ravine, repeatedly yelling his name to make sure he remained conscious. When responders were close to the top of the ravine with the man in the stretcher, they set him down on the ground and started performing CPR.

After about 20 minutes of them taking turns performing CPR, the man was pronounced dead.

His name was not released, but Murphy said he was 18 to 22 years of age and from Veyo.

There were initially reports of a woman in the car with him, but police located her and learned that she had gotten out of the vehicle before the man drove off the cliff.

The incident is still under investigation at the time of this report.

“We don’t know if it was intentional or not,” Murphy said. “That’s just part of the investigation still.”

Dammeron Valley Fire, Gold Cross Ambulance and a Utah Department of Transportation incident management team also responded to the scene.

This report is based on statements from police or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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9 Comments

  • AaronWatts May 11, 2018 at 12:29 am

    He was barely a man but he was a hell of a kid he was 18 and his name is Avry Watts, reports from eyewitnesses say police chased him off the bridge, he called my mom as he was being chased by police and left a voicemail. This report is false and I would appreciate if your publication deleted this article.

    • comments May 11, 2018 at 6:46 pm

      if that’s the case i’m glad he’s off the roads before he could kill someone else.

    • comments May 11, 2018 at 6:52 pm

      if the police are chasing you it’s best to slow down and pull over, not drive yourself off a cliff. Are you a relative? If you have actual verifiable information call the news company if you want it reported. This anonymous comment section is not the way to do it. Why was Mr. Avry evading the police in the first place?

  • AaronWatts May 11, 2018 at 7:04 am

    On top of that his seat belt was on and he even climbed himself out of the car

    • Real Life May 11, 2018 at 9:51 pm

      Sorry for the loss of your friend. Sounds like there is a lot more to this story.

  • 42214 May 11, 2018 at 5:16 pm

    Accident or suicide?

  • ScanMeister May 11, 2018 at 8:26 pm

    No evidence at all he was being chased by police……although he may have thought in his own mind that was the case.

    • comments May 11, 2018 at 9:51 pm

      true, possibly a paranoid schizophrenic

  • Jguerr206 May 15, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    This is such a horrible and tragic loss! I’m so sorry for your loss of such a very young man who died too soon! My thoughts and prayers are with your family!

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