Angeles Crest Highway Dashcam: Gut-Wrenching Footage Of SUV Rolling Off Of Cliff In San Gabriel Mountains

A gut-wrenching video, uploaded to YouTube on January 4, featuring dashcam footage shot from within a 2004 Subaru Forester XT skidding out of control on the Angeles Crest Highway, also known as California State Route 2, located in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, has been attracting attention, probably because of its sheer intensity. YouTube user TurboFoz wrote that he uploaded the video to implore other motorists to be “safe, pay attention and KNOW THE ROAD before you try to have ‘fun’ on it.”

TurboFoz, who purportedly shot the dashcam footage, was reportedly told by actor Lou Ferrigno, who just happened to be on the scene of the rescue, that he should “buy a lotto ticket,” according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5NWcdq4Wf4&feature=youtu.be

TurboFoz was racing along the Angeles Crest Highway, through a “nice long dark pair of tunnels.” The auto enthusiast reports enjoying the sound of a “nice relatively fast car with a loud exhaust” roaring through a tunnel. As the automatically adjusting exposure of the dashcam simulates well the dilation of human pupils in a dark tunnel, and how the view of the exit of the tunnel becomes a wash of light, TurboFoz was racing along through the tunnel, completely unable to see the sharp left-hand turn in the road in front of him.

Near the exit of the tunnel a pedestrian can been seen vainly waving their arms, attempting to warn TurboFoz that he was traveling too fast to safely make the turn.

“At the exit, I could barely see because it was so bright, a person standing and holding something while motioning,” the fortunate Angeles Crest Highway racer wrote. “Wondering what they were doing, I stared, and stared, reaching the top of 4th gear, all while trying to comprehend what they were trying to tell me. Then I figured it out.”

After his eyes adjusted and he was able to see the turn and make sense of what the pedestrian was trying to warn him about, TurboFoz wrote that he applied his brakes “softly” to try and prevent the rear of the vehicle from “sliding out.” His braking, combined with a change in road surface from concrete to pavement at the end of the tunnel and a slight bump, caused the car to begin to slide, and the driver lost control, veering across the Angeles Crest Highway, through a guardrail, before rolling several hundred feet down the face of a cliff and coming to rest on a “rock wall that was part of a drainage pipe.”

TurboFoz reports that the structure his SUV landed on was the only level ground on the cliff face: had he lost control just a few feet sooner, or later, his vehicle would likely have fallen much farther. In TurboFoz’ words, he’d “be dead.”

Amazingly, TurboFoz walked away from the wreck with no major injuries. Friends were following the Angeles Crest speedster and split into two groups: one to go summon help, and one to stay with their dazed, but unhurt friend.

The SUV wasn’t recovered from the side of the cliff until the day after the accident. TurboFoz returned to the scene to film the towing company’s work.

The California driver stated that he had a perfect driving record before the accident, and admonished himself: “I’m disappointed in myself, and I know some others may be disappointed in me as well.”

TurboFoz also expressed how glad he is to be alive and how lucky he is that no one else was hurt, writing “I know it could have been worse in so many ways.”

“I messed up,” TurboFoz stated seemingly accurately capturing the sentiment of many of the close to 700 comments left on the video. The TurboFoz Angles Crest Highway dashcam video has gained close to 400,000 views in just two days.

[Photo by David McNew/Getty Images]