Truck rolls off cliff, drops 30 feet upside down in Santa Clara

Dodge pickup truck rolls off cliff and drops 30 feet down a steep ravine near the Lower Cove Wash trail in Santa Clara, Utah, Oct. 10, 2018 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

SANTA CLARA — A day of shooting for two friends turned into a salvage operation Wednesday after a man’s truck rolled off a cliff and dropped to the bottom of a ravine in a remote area southeast of Gates Lane.

Shortly before noon, officers were dispatched to an incident in an area approximately two miles southeast of Gates Lane and Clary Hills Drive involving a white Dodge pickup truck that was upside-down at the bottom of a steep, narrow ravine, Santa Clara/Ivins Police Officer Reed Briggs said.

View across ravine where the Dodge sits upside-down 30 feet below in Santa Clara, Utah, Oct. 10, 2018 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

The truck’s occupants were outside of the vehicle at the top of the canyon waiting for help to arrive.

At the time of the incident, the men ventured out into the desolate area for shooting practice and after maneuvering through the rocky terrain the driver stopped the truck and both men got out.

As they did, the truck started to roll toward the edge of the cliff. The driver made a dash for the truck just as it went over the edge, flipped and crashed to the bottom of the ravine.

Briggs said that even if the driver would have been able to reach the truck and hit the brakes, he likely wouldn’t have been able to stop it because of the loose gravel and shale covering the area. Instead, the truck would probably have skidded over the side of the cliff – possibly with the driver still in it.

A crane was needed to pull the truck out of the narrow ravine before it could be towed from the area, and some time later a wrecking company capable of doing so was located and responded to begin the salvage operation.

No injuries were reported.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

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

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

15 Comments

  • Mike P October 10, 2018 at 8:36 pm

    I’d venture to say there were more than a few payment’s left when this “accident” happened…………..

  • Real Life October 11, 2018 at 5:54 am

    Scary part is they are “smart” enough to own guns.

    • Happy Commenter October 11, 2018 at 1:19 pm

      And real life isn’t?

  • KR567 October 11, 2018 at 6:32 am

    The scary part is that you have a keyboard

    • Happy Commenter October 11, 2018 at 9:36 am

      Good One!! SO true!

    • Carpe Diem October 11, 2018 at 10:36 am

      Yeah he has one of those semi-automatic word generators. Every time he pulls the trigger another dud goes off.

      • Happy Commenter October 11, 2018 at 10:56 pm

        Yup, predictable as the day is long.. Nothing original from that one..ever

    • Real Life October 11, 2018 at 1:35 pm

      Kr67z1, strikeout, ….duh, dexter, dumpster, happy copouter, whatever you want to call yourself, it’s still the lame stuff.

      • Happy Commenter October 11, 2018 at 10:57 pm

        But still no competition for you!

  • Carpe Diem October 11, 2018 at 6:52 am

    Oh SHOOT! Hope the ladder is ok.

    • Real Life October 11, 2018 at 1:33 pm

      Wow, what a zinger.

  • mmsandie October 11, 2018 at 8:54 am

    We have shooting galleries for people wh9 want to practice, so they deserve what happened. Lucky no 9ne was hurt

    • Carpe Diem October 11, 2018 at 10:39 am

      Ahem… they weren’t doing anything illegal… that we know of… besides being absent minded.
      I guess in this case we can be glad he wasn’t texting and running into people in intersections, as seems to be a current fad.

    • Happy Commenter October 11, 2018 at 12:03 pm

      Nobody deserves an accident. That is one conceited comment! Do you think you are perfect? I read your comment and there are typos. You deserve the comments you get. Learn how to text…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.