Car swerves off road, rolls down hillside above Quail Creek Reservoir

HURRICANE — A silver sedan traveling on 5300 West, which skirts Quail Creek Reservoir, swerved off the road near the intersection with Old Highway 91 late Wednesday afternoon, rolling about 40 feet down the hillside.

Dewey Moss, of HD Towing, rappels down a hillside above Quail Creek Reservoir down to a vehicle that went over the edge of the road on Oct. 28, 2020. Hurricane, Utah. | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

The battered vehicle ended up resting on its side against a group of large boulders that stopped it from going another 30 feet into the reservoir itself.

The incident was reported at 5:30 p.m., and Washington City and Hurricane fire and police arrived shortly after, as well as state park rangers, to make quick work of bringing up the driver and sole occupant from the vehicle. 

The driver was transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center with injuries that were described as not being life threatening. 

Bringing up the car itself from the shoreline below proved to be a more difficult task.

Officers on the scene were still investigating the circumstances of the crash and had few details at the time of this report.

It’s unclear what direction the car was traveling on 5300 West, only that it went off the road just before the curve toward where the road connects with Old Highway 91. 

Emergency vehicles are poised above a vehicle after it went off the road to rest on the shoreline of Quail Creek Reservoir on Oct. 28, 2020. Hurricane, Utah. | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News 

Fresh tracks could be seen leading off the road into the uneven dirt and stopping right at the edge of the hill. 

It was left to the father and son team of Steve and Dewey Moss of HD Towing of Hurricane to try to bring up the vehicle back up from 40 feet below.

Steve Moss has 50 years of towing experience, including 30 years working with his son, and he said it wasn’t the first time he had brought a car up a cliffside from Quail Creek Reservoir. 

“Sometimes you have to play with them,” he said. “This is not the first time. We’ve done this before.”

Using a cable from one of the tow vehicles like a rappelling rope, Dewey Moss went down the hillside and connected it to the vehicle. Two tow vehicles would eventually be hooked up, a process that took a little over an hour and a half. At one point, the torque of the vehicle hanging over the cliff dragged the smaller tow vehicle 4 feet. 

Just as the sedan peeked over the ledge, it became wedged into the edge of the cliff, and the Mosses used a jack to pry the car off. By 8 p.m., the battered car was sitting on the flatbed of the larger tow vehicle.  

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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