‘It just rained boulders.’ Motorists narrowly escape rockslide on Utah highway

Returning home from a trip to view fall foliage, the Armga family drove straight into a terrifying scene on a Utah highway.

“It just rained boulders,” Jordan Armga, who was in the vehicle with her husband, Harrison, and three children, told KSTU. “We just came around a bend and it started raining boulders.”

Boulders from a rockslide pounded vehicles on Highway 14 near Cedar City about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, Utah Highway Patrol officers told KSL.

“I stopped and that’s when more boulders were coming down and I just floored it to get out of the way,” Harrison Armga told KSTU. One rock smashed the handle on a door beside their toddler but no one was injured.

“Everyone in our car was somehow completely untouched,” Jordan Armga told St. George News. “It was truly a miracle.”

The rockfall totaled a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck but the driver and his son had only cuts and bruises, the publication reported.

Another driver trapped by the rockslide was hauling a mini-excavator, which he unloaded to begin clearing the road until authorities arrived, KSTU reported.

The highway reopened by 5 p.m., St. George News reported.

Cedar City is a community of 35,000 in the southwest corner of Utah, about 250 miles from Salt Lake City.

This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 11:38 AM with the headline "‘It just rained boulders.’ Motorists narrowly escape rockslide on Utah highway."