Dramatic rescue on SR 88 highlights dangers of Apache Trail
Good Samaritan saves victims in 'Hell's Gate' car crash
Two people survived a 377-foot fall off a cliff on State Route 88 after a good Samaritan scaled the terrain to free them from their wrecked vehicle before emergency crews arrived. FOX 10's Ashlie Rodriguez has this story.
MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. - A dramatic rescue was caught on camera Sunday morning after a car went over a cliff near "Hell's Gate" on State Route 88.
The driver and passenger survived the 377-foot fall, thanks in part to good Samaritans who say something must be done to make the stretch of road safer.
What we know:
A car was being recovered along Apache Trail (SR-88) Monday morning, one of two that went over the edge of the winding, sharp turns along Apache Trail over the weekend.
"I think a lot of people come out here to see the view and scenery. And all it takes is one lapse of concentration," said Lenny Marshall, who helped rescue the two. "It’s a very sharp turn. And if you don’t negotiate it, you could just go right off."
Marshall was driving by when he was waved down by bystanders.
"I’ve been first on scene a couple of times out here for accidents. I just felt we had to go down there and see what we could do, if anything, and thankfully, they were still alive," Marshall said. "They went straight off down here, they cleared this, tumbled all the way down where you can’t see way down into the ravine there."
Dig deeper:
It took Marshall 15 minutes to scale down the cliff, where he found a disoriented man with a deep gash on his head and his female passenger stuck inside.
"We couldn’t get her out of the passenger door so we went to the other side and the seatbelt was tangled around her. So we untangled that. I had to rip out the center console to get her out. We wanted to get her out of the car. We were scared it was going to catch fire," he said.
Emergency crews used a helicopter to extract the victims, who were badly injured.
"She has a bleed on the brain, a broken neck and a fractured back," said Joyce Davis, the injured passenger's mother. "I want to tell them thank you from the bottom of our heart because of their quick action on getting down there and helping her."
Marshall says crashes along the winding road are becoming too common.
"There are multiple cars that go off every year. There are no guardrails in place. You have to make sure you’re focusing on the road and not getting distracted," he said.
On Sunday night, another car plunged down the edge near mile marker 213, which is now a body recovery operation. Just last November, a driver and passenger fell more than 300 feet down a cliff in the same area. The driver said the wheels hit gravel at sunset.