MONTROSE - A treacherous mountain pass, ice, snow and a sharp curve whipped up a recipe for disaster - or for a miracle, depending on how it's viewed.
The Joe Sullivan family of Montrose, along with family friend Terry Holman and his daughter, were making a seemingly routine trip from a Durango basketball game Saturday afternoon, when, just past the snowshed, their minivan took an unexpected detour off the side of Red Mountain Pass.
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The van "plowed" snow, turning over "we don't know how many times," Sullivan said, before coming to rest in the river several hundred feet below.
Shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday, the Sullivan vehicle left the road at milepost 88.2 on Highway 550, approximately 6 miles outside of Ouray, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The vehicle had reportedly been traveling at approximately 10 mph in the 25 mph zone at the time.
"The roads were icy and snow packed. (Joe Sullivan) stated they lost control. There's no guardrail and they went 340 feet down the embankment, rolling multiple times," CSP Sgt. Lawrence Oletski said Monday.
"These are six very lucky people, perhaps the six luckiest I've ever met."
Sullivan said the harrowing experience was "unreal."
"You don't have a lot of time to think about it, but we were all aware we were going down the mountain," she said.
But everyone was OK, sustaining only slight injuries.
"Thank God. It's a miracle," Sullivan said. "We couldn't believe you could take that long of a fall and live through it."
Surviving was one thing; getting out, another.
"My husband was covered to his waist with snow. He had to dig himself out," she said. "My arm was caught in a piece of metal."
Daughter Tessa, 14, was able to lift Linda's arm and free her. They waited with Joe and Tyrel Sullivan, 17, Terry Holman and Stacia Holman, 14, for the rescue crews another motorist had summoned.
"Two of us got to the other side of the river, thinking we could climb out, but we couldn't," Linda Sullivan said. "It was too steep and there was too much snow."
Ouray Mountain Rescue pulled Linda - who had to have staples put in her head - up on a stretcher. The other five came up on belay ropes.
"We're all OK. We're very sore and stiff," she said. By Monday, the children felt well enough to go to school and Joe Sullivan went to work as usual.
The same snowy conditions that contributed to the crash may ironically also have saved the Sullivans' and Holmans' lives. Linda Sullivan said they "went down in kind of a chute," missing rocks and trees on either side, cushioned by the deep snow. "We never really got airborne, which probably did a lot to save us," she said.
"Had the crash been in the summertime, I don't know if the results would've been as favorable, but the snow helped soften the blow," Oletski said. "I've never met six people who are more fortunate in my life."
Both Oletski and Sullivan said a simple device had played a key role in the miraculous turn of events: Seat belts.
"All the windows in the van were broken out," said Oletski. "As they rolled down the side of the mountain, had they not been wearing a seat belt, one or all may have been ejected from the vehicle. It was key that everyone was restrained. That's why five were able to walk up.
"I've been doing this a while and I'm truly amazed that no one was hurt worse."
Sullivan said they owed their lives to seat belts, a low speed that prevented the van from launching into the air, "and also our faith."
There was one more thing, too - the motorists who called in the accident. The couple, identified by Oletski as Skip and Terri Garcia of Durango, didn't see all of the accident, but saw enough.
"They caught the tail end," Oletski said. "They didn't see everything, but they were aware enough to know not everything was right. That was actually key, because Ouray (Mountain Rescue) got going on this right way. They were able to get right up there and immediately begin the recovery process."
Sullivan said she didn't know how to reach the good Samaritan Garcias, but was grateful. "That's the only reason anyone knew we were down there," she said. "You couldn't see from the road."
Both she and Oletski had high praise for Ouray Mountain Rescue. "They were wonderful," Sullivan said, also praising the local community's "outpouring" in the wake of the accident. "We've had an outpouring of food and prayers and visits, which we appreciate very much."
Though the family is accustomed to Red Mountain, traveling it a few times each year, Sullivan said they won't be heading that way again any time soon.
"The next basketball game is in (Grand) Junction, so we don't have to go over a pass," she said.
Oletski said Joe Sullivan had been cited for improper mountain driving, a minor traffic infraction, because state statute says motorists must maintain control over vehicles while driving on a mountain highway.
He stressed that Sullivan had not been in any way careless and that road conditions and weather had colluded at an inopportune time.
Accidents on Red Mountain are not all that common, Oletski said. "But we can generally count on a few of these crashes per year. It's a dangerous road. There's just almost no margin for error."
Sometimes though, a slim margin is margin enough. "It all just added up in that instant right there," he said. "It's (the survival) truly a miracle."
Contact Katharhynn Heidelberg via
e-mail at katharhynnh@montrosepress.com
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