The driver of a Ford Mustang was lucky to get off the Beartooth Highway without serious injuries after taking one of the many hairpin turns on the mountain pass way too fast.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol got a call about a single-vehicle incident near mile marker 27 on the Beartooth Highway on Sunday afternoon.
“We got the call around 2:55 p.m.,” Aaron Brown, the Wyoming Highway Patrol’s public information officer, told Cowboy State Daily. “It was a single-vehicle rollover in the vicinity of Frozen Lake. The Mustang was going downhill, took the turn, lost control of the vehicle, slipped, and rolled off the road.”
Incredibly, the driver only sustained minor injuries. He was flown to a hospital in Billings, Montana, and released later that day.
Brown didn’t know the circumstances that led to the rollover, but said that the driver was ticketed for reckless driving.
Absolutely Totaled
When it comes to clearing wrecked vehicles, the Beartooth Highway is Zac Beardall’s turf. His Cody-based company, Zac's Towing and Recovery, was called to get the Mustang out of the mountains.
“It was absolutely totaled,” he said. “The roof is completely caved in, and the whole front K-member — which is the engine and front suspension support — got shoved back about a foot and blew one of the wheels apart. The back wheels are almost completely bald. It’s decimated.”
Beardall said he spoke to the driver, who was able to get out and walk away from the mutilated Mustang on his own.
“He has an injured shoulder and, I’d imagine, a pretty good concussion from the incident,” he said.
The driver told Beardall that “something made him lose control” as he took the curve on the highway.
It’s possible he caught the edge of the pavement during the turn, or was swinging too wide and too fast, causing the Mustang to roll and launch off the side.
“The direct distance from the asphalt to the vehicle was about 60 feet,” Beardall said. “The distance traveled, from where he left the road to where the car landed, was about 250 yards.”
Gone Adrift?
A tourist traveling on the Beartooth Highway got a video of the incident. It’s amazing the driver escaped with his life, let alone only sustaining minor injuries.
While driving on a curvy road and in a high-powered vehicle, one might be tempted to put the pedal to the metal and do a drift, like Vin Diesel in “The Fast and the Furious” franchise.
After watching the video, Beardall couldn’t say whether the driver had gone adrift while drifting or just underestimated his speed.
“He was definitely going too fast,” he said. “I couldn't tell if he was trying to drift it or what his intention was, but it definitely seems like he was at least going too fast for conditions.”
Automotive writer Aaron Turpen watched the video and came to the same conclusion.
“It looks like the driver underestimated the turn,” he said. “It doesn’t look like an intentional slide to me.”
Ironically, if someone were going to roll off a section of the Beartooth Highway, this driver found the best spot to do it. Beardall understood that the same incident in any other spot could have been much worse.
“He was really lucky to be in an area that had a place to land and didn’t just fall off a cliff,” he said.
At Your Own Risk
Beardall regularly recovers vehicles from the Beartooth Highway, whether they were involved in accidents or stuck in the snow. He said that section is particularly treacherous for drivers who aren’t mindful of their speed.
“Incidents happen fairly often at that spot,” he said. “There are super-narrow lanes of traffic and not much of a guardrail in that particular section, and stability issues of the dirt and the road base itself don't allow for such precautions to be taken.”
The Beartooth Highway can be a harrowing-enough driving experience at the posted speed limits, and speeding can quickly turn into a dangerous incident.
Beardall hopes other drivers will see the video of the Mustang’s crash as a reminder to follow the speed limit and not go adrift, lest they end up in similar circumstances.
“If you drive too fast on the Beartooth Highway, you assume your own risk,” he said.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
