Snowslide survival 'a miracle'

Lucky travelers say 2 vehicles tumbled after

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, January 8, 2007

Passengers inside a Toyota Sienna clobbered Saturday by a huge avalanche on U.S. 40 below Berthoud Pass estimate that their car rolled 10 or 15 times before slamming into a tree below the highway.

"My son couldn't get out of the car on his own," Don Johnson, of Ames, Iowa, said Sunday, still shaken but greatly relieved that there were no serious injuries and that his son, Darren, 28, and daughter-in-law, Sarah, 26, were OK.

"My daughter-in-law phoned me right away and told me that Darren was OK and not to come (to Colorado)."

Eight people in two cars, including five in the Sienna minivan, were knocked from the road by the avalanche. All were taken to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver.

In the other vehicle were David Boon, his wife, June, and 13-year- old Gary Martinez, a friend of the family. David Boon, 54, said the force of the avalanche blew out a side window of their two-door Honda Accord and tossed it off the road and into a tree.

"It was like a freight train hit us," he said.

The car rolled about four times until it hit a large tree about 150 feet below the highway and came to rest upside down, engulfed in snow, Boon said.

He dug his way out of the vehicle and then, with the help of others, got his wife and Martinez out of the car.

Boon said the three suffered cuts to their faces and hands, but that the injuries could have been much worse.

"It is a miracle that we are alive today," he said. "The tree saved us from further injuries."

Seven people were treated and released, while an eighth - Peter Olsen, a sophomore at Iowa State University in Ames - was kept overnight, said St. Anthony hospital spokeswoman Bev Lilly.

The survivors told family members about the kindness of strangers - people who immediately started digging in the hard-packed snow looking for anyone who might be buried.

Most of those hurt were young adults, and it didn't take long for them to transmogrify from shaken victims into media stars, noted Johnson. Sunday morning, they were guests on Good Morning America and showed up on Fox News and other news outlets.

"When I saw my son this morning on TV, he looked like he was hurting pretty bad, that he had some swelling," Johnson said.

The driver of the Toyota Sienna, Jordan Cook, just "hung onto the wheel - there wasn't anything he could really do" as the car went through a side rail, Don Johnson said, relaying information given to him by his daughter-in-law.

"It turned over and over and over until it came to rest against a tree. Rescuers estimated the car ended up 300 feet from the highway.

"They were all wearing seat belts. And the Toyota had side airbags, which they said really made a difference" in preventing injuries, Johnson said.

The Toyota was one of four vehicles carrying a couple dozen members of the Oakwood Road Church of Ames. They were returning from a ski trip.

"One car was ahead of the avalanche, two were behind," Johnson said of the other three cars that made up the church caravan.

Sunday morning, the pastor of Oakwood Road Church played a videotape of the Good Morning America interview for churchgoers.

"We prayed," Johnson said. "We thanked God for the outcome, and prayed for their safe return."

The other three cars in the church group were being driven to Iowa on Sunday. Those who had been in the Toyota were planning to catch a flight back Sunday.

A quick look at avalanche

Name of chutes: The Stanley Slide, on Stanley Mountain above U.S. 40 near Berthoud Pass

When: 10:30 a.m. Saturday

What happened: Avalanches 150 feet wide swept two vehicles off U.S. 40, destroying the cars and injuring eight occupants. Seven were treated at St. Anthony Central Hospital and released. One was kept overnight. The state transportation department reopened the highway about 7:45 p.m. Saturday.

Steepness: 30 to 45 degrees at the top - similar to a steep ski run

Rarity: Although avalanches in Colorado's backcountry are daily events, it's quite rare for an avalanche to hit a car on a highway - thanks to the efforts of avalanche forecasters and work by highway crews to trigger controlled avalanches, preventing larger ones. The last time an avalanche hit a car on this stretch of U.S. 40 was in 1987.

Factors:

• A season's worth of snowfall, melting and refreezing, which make the layers unstable

• Ten inches of fresh snow that fell Friday morning

• Extremely high winds Friday night and Saturday morning, with gusts reaching up to 100 mphSources: Colorado Department Of Transportation, Colorado Avalanche Information Center