CEDAR CITY — A rock slide in Cedar Canyon on Saturday afternoon sent a large boulder crashing into a vehicle, but its occupants escaped serious injury.
The incident, which reportedly occurred shortly before 3:30 p.m., caused state Route 14 to be closed in both directions for about 90 minutes while the roadway was cleared.
It happened between mile markers 8 and 9, the site of numerous other rock slides over the years.
Eyewitness Jordan Armga told Cedar City News that a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck took the brunt of the damage from the initial rockfall.
“The Tacoma that took the hit from the first boulder took most of the damage,” she reported, adding that the man who was driving the truck and his young son both walked away with minor injuries, mostly cuts and scrapes.
Meanwhile, Armga said she and the other occupants of her Ford Fusion passenger car escaped injury.
“Everyone in our car was somehow completely untouched,” Armga added. “It was truly a miracle.”
Armga said that while her car doesn’t appear to have more than a few dents looking at it from above, it did sustain heavy damage to its engine underneath, having ended up on top of a boulder.
In addition, Armga said, there was another passerby stuck in traffic who happened to have a mini excavator on a trailer, which he offloaded and used to help move some of the rocks and debris off the road before Utah Highway Patrol and Utah Department of Transportation personnel arrived on scene.
The road was reopened around 5 p.m., UHP reported. The agency also confirmed that no serious injuries were reported.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.
Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.
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